PORT ANGELES — School Board members may decide Wednesday to continue closing Monroe Elementary School or find other ways to offset a $300,000 budget deficit next year.
Port Angeles School District board president Charlie McClain and Schools Superintendent Gary Cohn spoke to members of the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce on Monday about the proposed “mothballing” of Monroe.
McClain said Wednesday’s special board meeting at district headquarters is the first time the five-member board will have the group opportunity to discuss testimony collected during two public hearings held last month.
“We could come to a consensus on ‘do we continue the process for the closure of Monroe, or do we change course and look at other ways to cut the budget?”‘ McClain said.
90-day closure process
In March, the board voted 4-1, Cindy Kelly dissenting, to trigger a 90-day process that could lead to closing the east Port Angeles elementary school effective June 30.
Several board members have said the district can no longer afford to operate six small elementary schools in light of past and current enrollment declines.
Speaking to a Chamber of Commerce audience of about 60 at the Port Angeles CrabHouse Restaurant on Monday afternoon, Cohn said enrollment numbers in the school district are at their lowest since 1956, adding that 640 full-time-equivalent student positions have been lost from 1986 to now.
“What is happening is the larger graduating classes are being replaced by smaller incoming classes,” he said.