January 6, 2015
Options weighed for Truxton school
TRUXTON — A group of 28 people Monday night narrowed down the options for the future of Hartnett Elementary School to the four they think are the most feasible.
The meeting was held at the Truxton Town Hall and the group also circulated a letter asking the Homer school district board of education to keep the school open while further study is done about the alternatives for the building.
The group is acting independently of the Homer school district after voters struck down on Dec. 16 a $5.8 million loan to renovate the school to turn it into a New Tech high school, a technology and project-based school. There were 721 ballots for the bond and945 against it.
The group selected the four options they found most desirable, but they decided not to formally present them to the Homer Board of Education. Instead, the group opted to send the board a letter today requesting the board rescind the resolution to repurpose Hartnett Elementary and instead vote to keep the school open for one more year.
This would give the district time to create an advisory committee to study alternatives for the building, according to the letter.
About 200 people have signed a petition in support of the letter, said Truxton resident Tom Brown.
Of the 14 alternatives brainstormed by a group of Hartnett supporters at a meeting Dec. 22 at the Truxton Fire Station, four stood out as the clear favorites of Monday night’s meeting.
All 28 attendees voted for keeping Hartnett open as it is.
The second favorite option, with25 votes, was to turn Hartnett Elementary into a science, technology, engineering and mathematics magnet elementary school. A magnet school is a public school that focuses its courses around a theme while still meeting state standards.
Residents closest to the proposed Truxton magnet elementary school would have first priority. Any left over space would be used by other Homer district students, Jeanetta Laudermilk, of Truxton, said.
Converting the school into a charter school was the third favorite option, gaining 21 votes.
A charter school is a public school that could have any educational focus the district chooses, said Victor Siegel, of Homer.
Siegel noted Monday that the proposed charter school would receive about $11,000 in funding for every student who attends.
The school district would lose aid because students would not be in its traditional schools, but it also would not have to pay the cost of instructing the students that go to the separately funded charter school, Laudermilk said Monday. The district would receive transition aid if more than 2 percent of its students attended.
The charter school would likelyattract students from other districts as well, Lydia Brown, of Truxton, said at the meeting. Krysta Austen, also of Truxton and another meeting attendee, said the charter school might also attract families back to the district who had pulled their children out.
With 20 votes, the fourth favorite option was to reform the Truxton school district and create a Truxton elementary school while the district pays tuition to send older students to Homer or another district.
The money raised by Truxton school taxes would more than cover the cost of running an elementary school, Siegel said.
In contrast, the school district claimed in a December flier on the proposed New Tech High School project that financial challenges prompted the decision to repurpose the school. The flyer cited declining enrollment, decreases in state aid, state pushes to consolidate and limit taxation and rising operational costs.
The cost of educating 104 students at the school this year was $1.9 million, according to the flyer.
But detractors of the project have accused the district of inflating that number. Truxton Town Board member Lloyd Sutton cited in his petition filed with the state Education Department last month a figure of $969,754 as the cost of running the school. He said this was the real figure as presented Aug. 12 by the board of education.
The board of education already discussed the options of a magnet school, a charter school and a New Tech elementary school in at least two open meetings, board member Bill Pedrick said in a phone interview this morning.
“From the board’s perspective, none of those options rose to the level of New Tech (high school) in terms of reform, keeping ownership of the building and finances,” Pedrick said.
Pedrick declined to comment on the group’s letter as it had not yet beenreceived.
Superintendent of Schools Nancy Ruscio also declined to comment as she had not seen the details of the suggested options or the letter.
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