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WOODBURN – East Allen County Schools board members Tuesday night took a red pen to the superintendent's recommendation for how to reconfigure school buildings.
Several board members took issue with Superintendent Kay Novotny's recommendation to close Paul Harding High School and possibly turn Woodlan Junior-Senior High School into a middle school.
Novotny's plan also includes closing New Haven Middle School and either Monroeville Elementary or Hoagland Elementary and an option, if Woodlan was kept as a high school, that has Heritage Junior-Senior High School and Woodlan serving grades 6 to 12 instead of 7 to 12.
While critiquing the superintendent's plan, the board brought forth its own ideas that would keep more schools open and serve the same grade levels they do now.
Considerations that were brought back to the forefront at the meeting included keeping Paul Harding open, maintaining Woodlan as a middle and high school but adding sixth grade, keeping Monroeville and Hoagland elementary schools open and reaffirming a desire to remove sixth grade from the elementary schools and place it in middle or high school buildings.
Board members told the nearly 300 people in the audience at Woodlan they were not recommending anything at this point or even defining anything as an option but merely considering the ideas.
"As far as the board's concerned, we haven't put anything on the table," said the Rev. Stephen Terry, board president.
Novotny did not attend the meeting. She will step down from her post at the end of June and will be replaced by Karyle Green, who comes from South Bend Community Schools, where she was a principal.
Some board members butted heads over whether the topic should be under discussion at this point, whether the board could make a decision without cost estimates for each plan and whether the district could afford to maintain the same number of buildings. Novotny has said the district could save $448,000 a year by closing at least one high school.
"We still have to figure out how to save money," said board member Leland Etzler, who continuously reminded the board he wants to keep the same structure but does not know how EACS would pay for it. "Maintenance, buildings, transportation, these are areas where we have an opportunity to save money. I've gotta hear something where we can save some money."
District officials recently slashed $1.5 million from the budget, cutting positions and programs, and they expect to cut more. EACS has five high schools and enrolls about 10,200 students. Fort Wayne Community Schools enrolls more than 21,000 more students than EACS and has just one more high school.
But EACS has a diverse district, with the high schools attached to specific communities and students coming from urban, rural, Amish, suburban, Burmese and many other backgrounds. It also has one of the largest geographic areas among school districts in Indiana.
Much of the board agreed that whatever final plan is brought forth, the district will have to hold a referendum next year for taxpayers to decide whether they want to pay for any upgrades or renovations. They may also have a separate referendum that addresses curricula.
Some board members also agreed they wanted to continue pursuing the idea of installing a New Tech model at one of the high schools. New Tech employs project-based learning for students and gives them a real-world experience in the classroom.
