GLENVILLE &045; One of the school district’s three buildings should be closed, and a new K-12 high school should be built within ten years, a consulting firm told the Glenville-Emmons School Board Tuesday. But residents and school board members don’t agree on whether an Emmons or a Glenville school should close, and many are wary of the high cost of a new building.

More than 50 people packed into the G-E High School band room to hear the recommendations of Midwest Management Resources, a St. Paul-based consulting firm, on the district’s dilemma about whether to keep all three school buildings &045; the high school in Glenville, middle school in Emmons, and K-3 elementary school in Glenville.

&uot;I believe everyone understands that a building in the district is likely to be closed,&uot; Superintendent Todd Chessmore said after the meeting. &uot;The real question is which building.&uot;

Between the 1992-’93 school year and the 2002-’03 school year, enrollment has declined from 661 students to 482, a drop of 27 percent. This decline has put the district in the position of closing a school facility.

Erik Birkeland, an educational consultant from the consulting firm, gave the recommendation &uot;that the school board adopt a resolution to close the Glenville Elementary building as the first step in a multi-phase long-range plan for the district.&uot;

Birkeland said they came to this conclusion based politics rather than finances.

&uot;The greatest problem this district is facing is the idea of community,&uot; he said. &uot;To close the Emmons building would create more problems for the district politically than it would for it financially.&uot;

Birkeland said the biggest issue he saw for the district was the rift between the two communities. He said it was very important for the two communities to begin thinking about themselves as one community.

To make matters worse, the two buildings in question &045; the Emmons middle-school building and the Glenville elementary building &045; have problems.

A school facilities specialist from the Department of Children, Families and Learning found that all schools in the district don’t meet code in many areas.

Any improvements that cost more than $500,000 on a building, which would likely be needed for any improvement, would mean that the district would have to spend the money to bring the building up to code. The costs of such improvements, according to the CFL, would cost 60 percent more than replacing the facility.

With this and the community issues in mind, Birkeland gave another recommendation: That the school district develop a five-to-ten-year, long-range plan, which would include building a central K-12 building at a neutral site within two years of the closing of the Glenville Elementary School.

A new building on a neutral site would save money on improvements, centralize the district to reduce maintenance costs, and is likely to ensure a longer life for the shrinking district, he said.

The past 32 years have not seen a school construction project in the district.

The crowd scrutinized much of what was recommended. A raise in taxes was the largest issue for most. For a new building to be built, it would mean a bond referendum would need to be passed. In November 2002, district voters voted against an operating referendum.

But there was also a divide on whether closing the Glenville Elementary facility was a good idea. Some said the Emmons site should be closed. Others thought all three should be left open.

School board member Steve Heideman said he thought the board should consider further options.

&uot;I think the idea of two new schools is an awful lot in the county,&uot; he said. He added that he felt the district should be looking at other options, such as further consolidation or pairing with other districts.

He said with such a small district, there will be little for students in the way of opportunity and selection.

Birkeland argued that the district could benefit from going to one school by offering a &uot;small-school&uot; atmosphere, which would attract students from other districts.

But Heideman thinks that attraction won’t happen without some selection.

The recommendation will be considered along with that of a citizen committee, which didn’t say which building it would recommend closing.

Two students, Nathan Cooper and Andy Reese, said they would rather the Glenville building be closed. They said the issue was about fairness and keeping something in both communities.

&uot;When you put kids in together in a school building it doesn’t matter where the building is,&uot; Reese said. &uot;The parents have a bigger problem with this than we do.&uot;

The school board is expected to make a preliminary decision on which building to close at a March 10 meeting.