PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles School District board is expected to decide which of the district’s two easternmost elementary schools will be closed.
The decision Monday night to mothball either Monroe School, 102 Monroe Road, or Fairview School, further east at 166 Lake Farm Road, would trigger a 90-day closure process that will finish about the end of the current school year.
“We fought this from happening as long as we could,” School Board President Charlie McClain said Friday, “but unfortunately, I think we are at that place in time where we must do this.”
But which school will be shuttered is still anybody’s guess. A written staff recommendation to the School Board shows a blank for the school’s name.
Hundreds of parents attached to either school are hoping their letters, e-mails and phone calls will persuade the School Board not to pick their school — or are urging the board to find other ways to save $300,000 in the 2004-05 budget.
The school district forecasts a $300,000 budget deficit next year because of declining enrollments that are reducing state funding.