Brookside to be closed to students

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, December 7, 1999

From staff reports

A school board vote on reorganization will result in the closure of Brookside Middle School to students in the coming school year.

Tuesday, December 07, 1999

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A school board vote on reorganization will result in the closure of Brookside Middle School to students in the coming school year.

The school board on Monday voted 4-2 to adopt the original K-6 option at Monday’s meeting. The plan groups Kindergarten through sixth-graders together in an elementary setting.

Students moving up to the seventh and eighth grades will be grouped together next year in a developing middle school plan at Southwest. The ninth and tenth grades will move up to the new high school facility.

The plan is estimated to save $470,888 for the school district next year. The school board was forced to consider reorganization because of a decline education funding caused by decreasing enrollment.

School board members Carol Haun and David Schreiber voted in opposition to the K-6 option.

&uot;No matter what the vote, once the decision is made, all of us on the school board and the school district staff will support it,&uot; Schreiber said. &uot;I’m a numbers man, but when I began to look at the Brookside program and the K-4 option, I began to see that sometimes you get a better product for just a little more money.&uot;

Schreiber said that the K-4 option proposed to the board, which preserves a middle school environment that separates the sixth grade from the elementary, seemed better suited for the needs of students in a transitional stage.

The difference between the plans was estimated between $60,000-$90,000, he said.

Haun also supported the middle school option that included the sixth grade, she said.

Connie Williams, a teacher in the district and a parent, spoke to the board during the open forum before the vote. She told board members she felt that the decision to adopt a K-6 option was a &uot;done deal&uot; even before the vote, and criticized the board for not going to the teachers first before seeking the opinions of the parents.

&uot;Parents are intimidated by school boards and will first talk among themselves and their child’s teachers before they go before the board,&uot; she said. &uot;By talking to the teachers first, who are more knowledgeable on the details of how education works, those teachers would then be instrumental in informing the parents, who wouldn’t normally come to the board for their answers.&uot;

Kyle Marie Milliron, a Brookside teacher, spoke again in favor of the plan she presented aimed at preserving the programs for sixth graders.

&uot;The school board challenged us to answer all of the questions, and gave us the information that helped us do so,&uot; she said. &uot;We did that and we answered all of the questions. We still feel this plan is the best way to save the district money that will best educate our learners.&uot;

The K-4, 5-6 option presented by Milliron and the Reorganization Compromise Committee would have grouped sixth-graders together along with some fifth-graders. Other fifth-graders would be spread to other facilities.

According to board member Grace Schwab, the school district’s enrollment has declined by 392 students since 1994.

&uot;We convinced ourselves for a long time, even when faced with these numbers, that things would get better,&uot; she said. &uot;But, then we hired a demographer who explained the numbers to us and we saw that it would take quite a bit to get things back the way they were. That just didn’t seem likely.&uot;

Board member Marjorie Thorn talked about being conflicted over the options, but voted in favor of the K-6 plan.

&uot;We don’t want to give up anything when it works. Brookside is certainly a shining star of the district and we’re proud of that,&uot; Thorn said.

Brookside teacher Carol Johnson spoke in favor of a plan to preserve the sixth-grade program.

&uot;We’re glad to hear that the board members have listened to our opinions with an open mind,&uot; she said. &uot;Many of us feel that the alternative plan better meets the needs of the students in transition, the sixth graders.&uot;

School board chairman Thomas Eaton said that plans for making the transition will begin immediately and continue over the summer.

Schwab, a district representative of the Minnesota School Board Association, said that the state Legislature announced an increase in funding next year because of the projected budget surplus. Schwab gave a report on the MSBA’s recent meeting in the Twin Cities at Monday’s school board meeting.

The Legislature is making a $50 per pupil increase in state aid to each district in the coming year, Schwab said. That increase will mean $230,000 more for the Albert Lea school district.

The Brookside facility will be used in the K-6 plan to house district offices, community education, special services and the alternative learning center, Superintendent David Prescott said.