School board members for Traverse City Area Public Schools are set to decide next month whether to close three elementary schools. But right now TCAPS officials are looking into other ways to save money.
There were more than 25 alternative options mentioned at the last board meeting, but a number of school officials say none of them are viable. That leaves some parents wondering if a look at alternatives is a formality or is actually being taken seriously.
'There have to be other ideas'
Megan Crandall, vice president of the board, and a few other board members say they are taking alternatives seriously. And while most board members agree that all the fat has been cut from the budget, Crandall doesn’t
"I'm frustrated. I think we can do better. I know we can do better." - Megan Crandall
think that means they need to cut to the bone.
"You know we keep talking about ‘oh, we need to do something or else the emergency manager’s going to come in,'" says Crandall. "This is a ... just over one-and-a-half percent cut to our budget, and we’re talking about closing three buildings, two of which I don’t think should be closed. There have to be other ideas, and we need to talk about them."
Crandall has been the most vocal board member against closing Interlochen Community School and Old Mission Peninsula School. She has served on the board for almost nine years.
"I understand the workings of the district," Crandall says, "and I’m frustrated. I think we can do better. I know we can do better."
Crandall put together her own alternative recommendations to save the district money. She suggests they might want to cut world languages. She also suggests sending some middle schoolers back to elementary buildings and closing East Middle School, which is under student capacity.
On the fence about alternatives
The board did ask the administration to bring back more information about Crandall’s ideas, but board member Scott Hardy says he’s not interested in closing East Middle School. He says they need to focus on the schools already being considered.
"We don’t have a lot of time because every minute that we’re not doing something is another minute we’re
"While there is no doubt that the options on the table are very disruptive to particular families and student, the considerations that we have to make as a board is on behalf of the entire district." - Erik Falconer
falling further behind on our budget," Hardy says.
Collectively the board seems to be behind closing International School at Bertha Vos. But Hardy is one of the board members on the fence about closing Interlochen and Old Mission. He’s interested in two specific alternatives that could help save those two schools: sending 6th graders back to Interlochen and leasing extra building space at Interlochen and Old Mission.
"I have talked to a couple of healthcare providers that might be interested in possibly using some of the space and tapping into the population and providing some healthcare services that we can’t provide as a district and that they don’t provide on Old Mission or at Interlochen School for that matter," says Hardy.
No viable alternatives
There are some school officials who say there are no viable alternative options.
Board member Erik Falconer says he supports closing all three elementary schools because it means limited disruption for the district as a whole.
"While there is no doubt that the options on the table are very disruptive to particular families and students," says Falconer, "the considerations that we have to make as a board is on behalf of the entire district."
Falconer says those three schools make up just over four percent of the entire district’s student population. Any viable alternative option, he says, would have to bring the same low level of disruption, and he just hasn’t seen that. He says that doesn’t mean he or the administration are just dismissing other options.
"The reality is that when we look at alternatives," Falconer says, "that a lot of considerations go into that. And the fact that they weren’t proposed originally doesn’t mean that they weren’t considered. That the proposals were made because on behalf of the entire district, they made the most sense."
TCAPS Superintendent Paul Soma did present the board with more than 25 alternative ideas from the community, but he says those options aren’t viable.
"I think it’s very reasonable that people would respond to that by saying, ‘well let’s try something other than closing these buildings. Does this work?’ And that’s where we’re left having to say, ‘well it doesn’t save the dollars, and it may or may not be educationally beneficial,'" says Soma.
Soma says they did not do a complete analysis of the costs and savings on all of the alternatives.
"To cross every T and dot every I on that answer? Twelve months worth of work."
But he says the administration has a sense of what will save them money and what won’t.
The TCAPS board meets tonight.
