Conneaut School District architects weighed in on the current study of B.U.S.S - Better Utilization of School Space when the Conneaut School Directors met in work session Wednesday evening.

With committees of citizens, board members and administration reviewing plans as to how best use Conneaut Schools in the near future as the district struggles with declining enrollment, static real estate values, and declining state support [state cut basic educational support back to the 2008-09 levels in this year's budget] , not to mention a spike in retirement rates the state has basically left unaddressed for almost 20 years, the architects did a review of the various options being studied and shared their results with those in attendance at the work session.

First the architects, using state Department of Education [PDE]projections from 7/20/10, and this year's actual school enrollment figures, the state had projected 2,499 students for this school year. Actual third day enrollment figures show 2,368 students, a difference of 131.

Actual third day enrollment figures for the entire Conneaut School District showed a drop of 103 students alone from the year before, and about 600 students in the past 10 years.

The architects noted, using PDE figures of 25 students per classroom that Conneaut Lake Elementary School has a current enrollment of 464 vs. the PDE's 675, capacity, showing the school to have a utilization rate of 68>7%; Conneaut Lake High School actual 405 students/capacity 785, utilization at 51.6%; Conneaut Valley Elementary, 335 students, 600 capacity, utilization 55>8%; Conneaut Valley High School, 365 students, 680 capacity, utilization 53.7%; Linesville AS Elementary, 395 students, 700 capacity, 56.4% utilization; and Linesville High School 404 students, 745 capacity, 54.2% utilization.

The high school figures did not adjust for students out partial days attending the career and technical center nor for special education needs.

A question to be answered down the road, pending changes to building use should any building be closed, is how debt service payments from the state may change or not change. Indication is debt service payments by the state could stop on any closed building but may be increased due to fuller use of other buildings.

The district caries debt on all the school buildings in use now due to the renovation projects completed in recent years.

District committees, studying four areas for the B.U.S.S. are facilities use, curriculum, transportation, and budget groups, and there have been roughly nine options from not closing any buildings and staying the same to a single high school setup in the district. Two options have been set aside by the facilities use committee as not practical. They included having all K - 2 students attend the elementary school in Linesville and grades 3 - 8 at two of the current high schools and having a single high school. Among concerns were once grades 3 - 5 were in two high school buildings, classroom space was used up and most of which was left were science rooms, special rooms, really not conducive to regular classroom learning.

In Option 1A, where the three K-6 buildings remain, two high school buildings [Lake/Valley] become grades 7-8 buildings and there is a single high school at Linesville for grades 9 - 12, the elementary capacity shows room for 305 more at Linesville, 265 at Valley and 211 at Lake for a total of 781;

for Valley High becoming just a 7-8 building there is room for 315 more, and 380 at Lake while Linesville as a senior high building, which currently has room for 341 more, would have an over enrollment of 42 [again not counting for CTC vo-tech students and only for a year or two when population figures tend downward.

In Option 1B, the three elementary buildings remain as described above, then either Valley High or Lake High would close and put grades 7 - 9 at Valley and still have room for 121 more or if put at Lake 226 more, while a single high school at Linesville for grades 10 - 12 would still have room for 130 more. The single high school for grades 10 - 12 would enroll 615 in the three grades, not a huge high school by some standards. A recent study put out by the PA School Board's Association said schools between 600 - 900 were not considered large schools;

At one time in the past, Conneaut Lake High School was home to over 900 students.

The 2A option keeps the three elementary schools as is and the numbers used above and is called the North-South option. That option calls for Lake High School to close and use Valley and Linesville for 7 - 12 buildings. It would require some change in boundaries - Valley holding up to 680 in capacity and Linesville up to 745. That would split along the lines of Valley's 680 capacity and Linesville 745 capacity and would still have room for 251 more between the two schools.

Option 2B, called the East - West option would keep the 3 elementaries as they are now, again see numbers above, and close Valley High with Lake and Linesville becoming grades 7 - 12 schools. Lake capacity is 785 and Linesville 745; the two schools would still have room for 356 more with a 2-school enrollment of 1174 and capacity at 1530.

Option 6A changes the elementaries to two schools - one at Valley and one at Lake - for grades K - 5 with Valley capacity at 600 [current enrollment 335] and Lake capacity at 675, current enrollment 482 and still a rated capacity of 278 more at 1,275.

The option then calls for one of either Valley or Lake high schools to close. The building staying open would house all grades 6 - 8 with Valley having 582 6 - 8 students in a building with capacity of 680 and enrollment of 582; Lake would have a capacity of 785 and house the 582 in the three grades and still have a capacity of 203 more.

Linesville would house grades 9 - 12 and use some rooms for 9th graders at the Schafer Elementary building for a time with the two buildings showing a capacity of 1515, but student numbers at 787.

Option 6B would close the Linesville Elementary School and have grades K - 4 at Valley and Lake Elementaries. Valley, with a capacity of 600 and Lake with 675 capacity, would house the 813 students between the two and still have another 462 capacity.

There would be two middle schools, one at Valley and one at Lake with, again Valley capacity at 680 and Lake at 785, the two splitting a 766 enrollment number and still having room for 699 more.

Linesville would be for grades 9 - 12, again as noted above, using some of the Linesville elementary for a time to help with 9th graders and having the ability to house 728 more.

Option 5 is the option keeping all schools as is and no changes to attendance areas but as noted earlier the district needs to address declining enrollment, financial pressures from cuts in state aid and stagnant real estate values, and the projected budget deficits, along with the debt service.

Dealing with deficits could cause cuts to programs in schools ranging from sports programs to band, to music, to libraries, to art, to technical education, and more. The architects recommended as next steps to perform additional facility specific test fit exercises for the options based on staff, curriculum and special education considerations, assess transportation and staffing issues related to the options looking for coast savings, assign and compare cost saving related to building realignments, and closures, move to finalize facility studies, select options most beneficial to district, development Plan-Con documentation for selected option where facility re-alignment or closure is anticipated and assess capacity to enrollment against original approved Plan-Con submission, engage PDE with documentation relative to past and future reimbursement on any realigned or closed facility.

The school board plan is to continue committee work with a combined meeting Oct. 24, a community meeting in each attendance area in November, think about the offerings and make a decision as how to proceed in January.

School director David Schaef has pushed the idea of sending a newsletter to district residents and taxpayers listing the options, the savings, etc.,and having residents then return those surveys to help determine what the public would like to see done.

The school district, under the state's Act 1 law, cannot raise taxes above a certain level without taxpayer approval. While school taxes were not raised in this year's budget, the amount that could have been raised would have amounted to about $245,000, about a mill of taxes, but nowhere near the amount needed to cover increased costs with the school district cutting numerous teaching positions among cuts.

Next year's projected raise is not much more than that noted above with the district drawing on some of its savings to help with the budget costs.

The committees working on the four areas of budget, transportation, facility use and curriculum are still putting figures together with one very preliminary document showing how many staff might be needed under the options listed above. Again the figures are preliminary but staying as is - Option 5 - projects 175 teachers on staff. Option 1 of the 3 elementaries, 2 grade 7 - 8 schools and one 9 - 12 high school would have about 160 teachers and one less administrator. If a teacher average cost including salary, all benefits, etc, is thought to be around $80,000 the 160 needed would save somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.2 million.

Option 1A of 3 elementaries, one 7 - 8 school and one grades 9-12 school would project 153 teachers, one less administrator and savings in excess of $1.7 million; the North-South Option of 3 elementaries, two high schools, closing CLHS projects those staff savings of roughly 163 staff members at about $960,000 - the same as the East -West Option.

Option 6 with 2 elementaries schools, one 6 - 8 school and one 9 - 12 school with 152 staff members and two less administrators would see savings in excess of $1.8 million and Option 6A of 2 elementaries, two grades 5 - 8 schools and one 9 - 12 schools with 159 staff members and two less administrators would have savings in excess of $1,4 million ,plus there would be savings in terms of bands, sports teams, etc.

At the school board work session of Wednesday evening, the school directors listened to CVHS student Courtney Crowley speak to wanting to be a Conneaut Valley Indian forever. She said if schools were combined she would either home school or attend Northwestern in Albion. Valley is a great school, she noted, and took exception to a recent article in another newspaper disparaging Valley residents for their choice in living in the more rural area of the school district, Crowley wearing a "I'm from Beaver Center T-shirt."

Greg Comp, a 1972 graduate of CVHS, who recently returned to the area, spoke of knowing about mergers of other schools in areas he lived in. He spoke on behalf of a North-South Option for the schools and suggested concessions are needed from all.

Residents need to understand should one high school be the result of these plans, a new school name would be chosen, a new mascot for sports teams, etc., based on comments from school directors in the past. A two school plan and names, etc., would have to be looked at, as has been suggested.

Much remains to be done. The school board has not chosen a final plan, public input is needed and all need to work together for what is best in the long run for the students, parents, community, and taxpayers. Students must be educated as best the district can do to go out into a competitive world economy. Action must be taken to address the issues in front of the district, students, and taxpayers and the school board should be commended for trying to take a pro-active approach to the issues, according to Schaef.