EACS proposes closing six schools

NEW HAVEN, Ind. (WANE) - Superintendent Dr. Karyle Green has made a recommendation regarding a redesign plan for East Allen County Schools that would close six elementary schools, but keep all five high schools open.

She made the recommendation at Tuesday evening's board meeting.

The plan Dr. Green would like to see implemented would close Harlan, Hoagland, Meadowbrook, Monroeville, Village and Woodburn elementary schools.

That means big changes to the other attendance areas. Heritage and Woodlan areas would have K-12 campuses.

The New Haven attendance area would have an Early Childhood Academy for grades PK-2, a new Intermediate School for grades 3-6, and a junior/senior high school for 7-12 graders.

The Paul Harding area would rearrange to also have an Early Childhood Academy for PK-2, 3-6 graders would attend Prince Chapman Intermediate and a College and Career Academy would house 7-12 graders.

The redesign plan was formulated based on five different plans that were presented to the EACS board and the public earlier in the year.  Those plans included such options as building one high school for the entire district. While those plans predicted to save the district anywhere from six to eight million dollars, Dr. Green admitted this plan would not save as much. She said it's because they're saving more schools.

In order to make this plan work, voters would also have to pass a referendum to bring in $8.1 million.
The money and the two year transition phase seemed to be two of the hot topics from the meeting.

Jamie Garwood does not have any children in the system, but wanted to know where her tax dollars would be going. She told NewsChannel 15 she heard both good and bad things.

"I think they were good to readjust some of the boundaries for the schools, but I think they've really misled people when they said that everybody a K-12 campus model," she said.

Steve Pflueger is a parent of a Meadowbrook student. He said he was disappointed with what he heard.

"I think the most frustrating part of this is they attached everything to the referendum," he said. "So they put all this time and effort in to put this proposal together, and if the referendum doesn't pass, then they start all over again and then go through all this again." He also said he thinks the board wants the referendum to fail, so their new plan could close some high schools.

Dianna Saalfrank is also a parent and is more concerned about where her kids will end up.

"They didn't really go into detail between, first they said New Haven Elementary wasn't closing, then they turned around and said they were closing, that they would be the Freshman Academy for Harding," she said. "So we're confused about where our kids are going to be going."

 

The redesign plan is expected to save the district millions of dollars and would have to be approved by the school board.

The board is scheduled to vote on the redesign plan on October 5. If the plan is approved, opponents could still fight its implementation with a remonstrance.

EACS has scheduled six times where the recommendation will be presented to the public. All the presentations will take place at the Park Hill Learning Center auditorium.

• Wednesday, September 22, 4:00 p.m.

• Wednesday, September 22, 6:00 p.m.

• Wednesday, September 29, 4:00 p.m.

• Wednesday, September 29, 6:00 p.m.

• Monday, October 4, 4:00 p.m.

• Monday, October 4, 6:00 p.m.