December 12, 2017 at 6:26 p.m.
Judge Haynes will be closed
Students will shift to General Shanks and East for 2018-19 school year
Judge Haynes will be closed
Judge Haynes Elementary School will close its doors at the end of the current school year.
After nearly a year of study, deliberation and public comment, Jay School Board voted 6-0 to continue consolidation in the face of serious financial straits related to declining enrollment. Board president Kristi Betts was unable to attend Monday’s meeting because of the death of her father.
“Buildings don’t teach students. Teachers do,” said superintendent Jeremy Gulley as he commended the board for taking on a tough decision. “I know some of you have really struggled with this.”
“No one says it’s going to be easy,” said board member Ron Laux, who made the motion to close the building at the end of the school year.
“It’s never easy to close a building,” said board member Phil Ford, who seconded Laux’s motion. “But I feel this is what we should do for the overall good of the corporation.”
Changing demographics — smaller families and a median age that will soon climb over 40 — and Indiana’s public school funding mechanism, which is based directly upon student enrollment, have driven the school closing discussion.
“The state only funds us for the students we have,” said Gulley.
Jay Schools has 45 percent fewer students than it had in 1973.
“This is occurring in many other rural school districts,” Gulley added, citing Muncie, Blackford County, Huntington County and North Adams school districts facing similar problems.
While Jay Schools has reduced its spending by $1.7 million in the past two years, those spending cuts haven’t kept pace with enrollment declines. The resulting deficit spending have diminished the corporation’s general fund cash balance to historically low levels.
After nearly a year of study, deliberation and public comment, Jay School Board voted 6-0 to continue consolidation in the face of serious financial straits related to declining enrollment. Board president Kristi Betts was unable to attend Monday’s meeting because of the death of her father.
“Buildings don’t teach students. Teachers do,” said superintendent Jeremy Gulley as he commended the board for taking on a tough decision. “I know some of you have really struggled with this.”
“No one says it’s going to be easy,” said board member Ron Laux, who made the motion to close the building at the end of the school year.
“It’s never easy to close a building,” said board member Phil Ford, who seconded Laux’s motion. “But I feel this is what we should do for the overall good of the corporation.”
Changing demographics — smaller families and a median age that will soon climb over 40 — and Indiana’s public school funding mechanism, which is based directly upon student enrollment, have driven the school closing discussion.
“The state only funds us for the students we have,” said Gulley.
Jay Schools has 45 percent fewer students than it had in 1973.
“This is occurring in many other rural school districts,” Gulley added, citing Muncie, Blackford County, Huntington County and North Adams school districts facing similar problems.
While Jay Schools has reduced its spending by $1.7 million in the past two years, those spending cuts haven’t kept pace with enrollment declines. The resulting deficit spending have diminished the corporation’s general fund cash balance to historically low levels.
School corporation business manager Brad DeRome’s latest estimate is that cash flow in the general fund will be $159,900 in the red at the end of the calendar year, leaving Jay Schools with a balance of $1,367,000. And without consolidation, future deficits would shrink that amount dramatically and quickly, Gulley has explained.
The closing of the Judge Haynes building is expected to result in annual savings of about $380,000. Four teaching positions and one administrator’s job would be eliminated.
This isn’t the first school closing decision faced by the current board. Pennville Elementary School saw its doors close at the end of the 2016-17 school year. And Gulley has warned that unless the enrollment decline is reversed or stabilizes that additional consolidation lies ahead.
Monday he outlined three options for the board:
•Closing Judge Haynes and moving those students and some of the staff to East and General Shanks elementaries, which would be configured as kindergarten through grade two and grade three through five respectively.
•Deferring a decision until the 2021 school year and combining it with even more consolidation that would move middle school students to the high school building, use the current middle school buildings as elementaries, close the Westlawn Elementary building in Dunkirk, re-purpose the General Shanks building and close the current administrative offices in the former Portland armory building on Tyson Road.
•Do nothing and keep Haynes open.
“I do not recommend option three,” said Gulley. “Option one and option two, the administration can viably implement.”
The only public comment at Monday’s meeting recommended deferring the decision a few years and doing all the consolidation at once.
“It’s obvious the school is going to close,” Judge Haynes parent Jamie Coats told the board. “It’s just a matter of when. … I understand that financially we have to do something. … I think a quick fix is not the best solution.”
Coats, who has appeared before the board on other occasions to argue her case, said she believed that closing Haynes then consolidating again a few years down the road would make it difficult for students to adapt.
“Now we will focus on preparing for the next school year,” said Gulley.
He will be returning to the board with specific proposals on structural modifications at the East and General Shanks sites. Floor to ceiling walls will be constructed at East, which had been designed in the mid-1970s as an open-concept school. And both school properties will need significant work on their parking lots and traffic flow.
Gulley will also continue to keep the board informed on further consolidation that might be required, with an eye toward making further decisions by December 2018.
In other business, the board:
•Authorized DeRome to make year-end fund transfers on the school corporation’s books.
•Gave DeRome authority to transfer up to $400,000 in unspent funds from the capital projects fund and transportation fund to beef up the corporation’s rainy day fund.
•Received a report on several new classes to be offered at Jay County High School.
•Accepted a Title II federal grant for supporting effective instruction in the amount of $136,652.38.
•Accepted an Indiana Department of Education Early Literacy Intervention grant in the amount of $18,576.
•Renewed the board’s support for courses in advanced manufacturing at JCHS.
•Hired Ted Habegger and Dennis Dwiggins as driver education teachers.
•Contracted with Behavior Associates of Indiana for special education support services at General Shanks.
•Approved the retirement of Bloomfield Elementary School kitchen manager Linda Huelskamp.
•Accepted the resignations of part-time custodian Kari Fields and custodian James Lugar.
•Approved leaves of absence for bus drivers Richard Jones and Carol Lykins, and West Jay science teacher Jeff Hess.
•Approved Kyle Sibray as assistant swim coach at JCHS.
•Authorized DeRome to void several outstanding checks that are more than two years old.
The closing of the Judge Haynes building is expected to result in annual savings of about $380,000. Four teaching positions and one administrator’s job would be eliminated.
This isn’t the first school closing decision faced by the current board. Pennville Elementary School saw its doors close at the end of the 2016-17 school year. And Gulley has warned that unless the enrollment decline is reversed or stabilizes that additional consolidation lies ahead.
Monday he outlined three options for the board:
•Closing Judge Haynes and moving those students and some of the staff to East and General Shanks elementaries, which would be configured as kindergarten through grade two and grade three through five respectively.
•Deferring a decision until the 2021 school year and combining it with even more consolidation that would move middle school students to the high school building, use the current middle school buildings as elementaries, close the Westlawn Elementary building in Dunkirk, re-purpose the General Shanks building and close the current administrative offices in the former Portland armory building on Tyson Road.
•Do nothing and keep Haynes open.
“I do not recommend option three,” said Gulley. “Option one and option two, the administration can viably implement.”
The only public comment at Monday’s meeting recommended deferring the decision a few years and doing all the consolidation at once.
“It’s obvious the school is going to close,” Judge Haynes parent Jamie Coats told the board. “It’s just a matter of when. … I understand that financially we have to do something. … I think a quick fix is not the best solution.”
Coats, who has appeared before the board on other occasions to argue her case, said she believed that closing Haynes then consolidating again a few years down the road would make it difficult for students to adapt.
“Now we will focus on preparing for the next school year,” said Gulley.
He will be returning to the board with specific proposals on structural modifications at the East and General Shanks sites. Floor to ceiling walls will be constructed at East, which had been designed in the mid-1970s as an open-concept school. And both school properties will need significant work on their parking lots and traffic flow.
Gulley will also continue to keep the board informed on further consolidation that might be required, with an eye toward making further decisions by December 2018.
In other business, the board:
•Authorized DeRome to make year-end fund transfers on the school corporation’s books.
•Gave DeRome authority to transfer up to $400,000 in unspent funds from the capital projects fund and transportation fund to beef up the corporation’s rainy day fund.
•Received a report on several new classes to be offered at Jay County High School.
•Accepted a Title II federal grant for supporting effective instruction in the amount of $136,652.38.
•Accepted an Indiana Department of Education Early Literacy Intervention grant in the amount of $18,576.
•Renewed the board’s support for courses in advanced manufacturing at JCHS.
•Hired Ted Habegger and Dennis Dwiggins as driver education teachers.
•Contracted with Behavior Associates of Indiana for special education support services at General Shanks.
•Approved the retirement of Bloomfield Elementary School kitchen manager Linda Huelskamp.
•Accepted the resignations of part-time custodian Kari Fields and custodian James Lugar.
•Approved leaves of absence for bus drivers Richard Jones and Carol Lykins, and West Jay science teacher Jeff Hess.
•Approved Kyle Sibray as assistant swim coach at JCHS.
•Authorized DeRome to void several outstanding checks that are more than two years old.
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