Still cuts, but not so deep

One less school closure. Another school’s life extended for a year. Forty-two fewer teachers and 19 fewer administrators and classified staff laid off.

And grade reconfiguration off the table — at least for now.

Those were the key revised recommendations, presented by Eugene School District Superintendent George Russell during Wednesday’s school board meeting, to close a large budget gap — now estimated at $22 million — in the 2011-12 school year. That revised estimate, based on the assumption that state school funding will remain the same next year, is substantially less than district officials’ original estimate of $30 million.

Russell’s previous recommendations to the board on Nov. 3 called for closing six schools — Parker, Twin Oaks, Meadowlark, Crest Drive and Coburg elementary schools, as well as Family School, a K-8 alternative school — and slashing 104 teaching jobs and 62 administrators and classified staff.

But he is no longer recommending the closure of Family School, which shares a building in west Eugene with the K-8 Arts and Technology Academy at Jefferson; and Twin Oaks would not close until the 2012-13 school year under the revision. Its students would then move to nearby Mc­Cornack Elementary — if Eugene voters were to pass a bond measure allowing for Mc­Cornack to be expanded, Russell said.

Coburg and Crest Drive would still close; Meadowlark would close, with its students attending Willa­gillespie Elementary School; Parker would still close, and its building on Kincaid Street in south Eugene would still become occupied next fall by the district’s French immersion elementary school, Charlemagne at Fox Hollow.

Russell also had recommended last month the controversial reconfiguration of five elementary schools into K-3 schools, and three middle schools into 4-8 schools, as well as turning ATA at Jefferson into a 4-8 school. But Russell, who will retire at the end of the school year, said Wednesday that neither the school district nor the community is ready for such a drastic change.

“We didn’t do a good enough job of selling it to the board or to the community,” Russell said after Wednesday’s meeting at the district’s Education Center, which drew more than 100 teachers, administrators and parents. More time is needed to process such a change, he said.

But the board will need to address the topic of grade reconfiguration again in 2011-12, Russell said.

“I know that this is a sensitive topic,” he said. “But I would suggest that if things do not get significantly better in the next three to five years, then you’re going to have to do things significantly different in the future.”

Russell’s original recommendations called for shifting Adams, Bertha Holt, Cesar Chavez, Edgewood and McCornack elementary schools to the rare K-3 model; and Spencer Butte, Kennedy and Monroe middle schools, as well as ATA at Jefferson, to the 4-8 model.

Russell said he was able to recommend the less drastic reductions based on the assumption of “status quo” funding from the state in 2011-12, instead of a previously projected 5 percent decrease.

“There have been some signals from the state that they’re going to try and keep (funding) at the same levels,” district spokeswoman Kerry Delf said. Both outgoing Gov. Ted Kulongoski and incoming Gov. John Kitzhaber have hinted at this, she said.

The initial proposed school closures represented an annual savings of $1.2 million, while the revised school closings would save closer to $1 million in the next school year. The closures, along with the grade reconfigurations, were the most controversial changes proposed by Russell, and the ones packing the biggest emotional wallop.

“I think it’s a great thing,” said a relieved Jeffry Johnson, principal at Family School, after the meeting. “I feel that Family School has a very distinctive educational program.”

Twin Oaks Principal Larry Soberman also expressed some relief at getting a potential reprieve, at least for an additional school year.

“My staff and students and parents will be pleased to know that they have another year at a school they love, but saddened to know it’s their final year,” Soberman said.

Russell said Family School “made some good arguments” for not closing and that the K-8 model seems to be a viable and strong one. It also helps that the school shares a building with ATA at Jefferson, he said.

Russell also recommended Wednesday that the board’s goal of creating a “sustainable” budget — one that doesn’t dip deeply into reserves or one-time funds — be pushed back from 2012-13 to 2014-15.

Laying off fewer teachers and staff members under Russell’s revised plan would allow for class sizes to increase by only two or three students at elementary schools and by three or four students at middle and high schools — rather than by four to six students as per Russell’s initial proposal.

Russell also proposed placing on the May ballot a property tax-funded bond measure of $130 million for capital projects.