October 9, 2017 at 5:00 p.m.
School meeting set for Tuesday
School meeting set for Tuesday
No one wants to talk about closing schools.
But it’s a conversation the Jay School Board and Jay Schools administrators believe must take place.
With Pennville Elementary School closed last spring and the nearly inevitable decision to close Judge Haynes Elementary School on the horizon, board members are now pondering what other consolidation may lie ahead as enrollment continues to decline.
The board will meet in special session at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the cafeteria at East Jay Middle School for the second of two community input and informational sessions on potential changes that may lie ahead.
A similar session was held Sept. 28 at West Jay Middle School.
“It will be very similar information … but at the same time we do know there’s a decision about the Judge Haynes school … in December,” said Jay Schools superintendent Jeremy Gulley. “I expect we’ll have more opportunity to get input on that subject.”
No formal action has been taken on the Judge Haynes closing, but it appears likely that the school will close at the end of the 2017-18 school year.
Tentative plans call for converting East Elementary School to a kindergarten through grade two facility and General Shanks Elementary School into a grade three through six building.
Meanwhile Gulley has been working with a couple of committees — one made up of 13 community members and the other of the principal and a teacher from each school — to figure out what further steps could be taken.
Enrollment in Jay Schools is down 44 percent since 1973, and elementary enrollment is half what it was in 1975. This year’s drop in enrollment was the biggest in the past 10 years.
The enrollment decline, which has a direct impact on state revenues, is primarily due to changing demographics. Schools built to accommodate Baby Boomers are larger than needed for the current generation. Families are smaller these days, and Jay County’s median age is higher than it used to be.
The Pennville closing is also a factor, with some families opting to send their students to Southern Wells Schools.
“We hope those students will come back,” Gulley told the board last month. “But are (large numbers of) kids going to other districts? The answer is no.”
More than 50 percent of this year’s net decline in enrollment is because of families moving out of Jay County.
Gulley is expected to review those discouraging numbers and their impact on the corporation’s financial situation at Tuesday’s meeting.
He’ll also be sketching out a couple of different options for reconfiguring schools if enrollment continues to drop at anywhere near its current rate.
Currently Gulley projects enrollment will drop 49 students per year for the next four years. A demographics study is being conducted to fine-tune those projections and should be complete by next month.
“Our district has gone through big changes before,” Gulley said in September. “How do you plan for that?”
Option one would:
•Use the Jay County High School building for grades seven through 12, making changes to the instructional area at the southeast corner of the building to provide separation between younger and older students.
•Close General Shanks Elementary.
•Use the current East Elementary and East Jay Middle School buildings to accommodate kindergarten through sixth graders either as K-two and three-six facilities respectively or as two K-six schools.
•Keep Bloomfield Elementary School and Redkey Elementary School as kindergarten through grade six facilities.
•Close Westlawn Elementary School and convert the current West Jay building into a kindergarten through grade six facility.
Option two would be similar, but the high school building would have students from grades six through 12 while allelementaries would end at grade five.
Under either option, the school corporation would go from nine buildings to six and would see significant savings.
Gulley has stressed that the options he has presented are “conceptual.” He’s inviting comment and questions not only through Tuesday’s session but via a survey on the Jay Schools website.
The community can access Gulley’s full 50-page reportto the board at http://bit.ly/JSCplanning and then take an online survey through the corporation’s website.
But it’s a conversation the Jay School Board and Jay Schools administrators believe must take place.
With Pennville Elementary School closed last spring and the nearly inevitable decision to close Judge Haynes Elementary School on the horizon, board members are now pondering what other consolidation may lie ahead as enrollment continues to decline.
The board will meet in special session at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the cafeteria at East Jay Middle School for the second of two community input and informational sessions on potential changes that may lie ahead.
A similar session was held Sept. 28 at West Jay Middle School.
“It will be very similar information … but at the same time we do know there’s a decision about the Judge Haynes school … in December,” said Jay Schools superintendent Jeremy Gulley. “I expect we’ll have more opportunity to get input on that subject.”
No formal action has been taken on the Judge Haynes closing, but it appears likely that the school will close at the end of the 2017-18 school year.
Tentative plans call for converting East Elementary School to a kindergarten through grade two facility and General Shanks Elementary School into a grade three through six building.
Enrollment in Jay Schools is down 44 percent since 1973, and elementary enrollment is half what it was in 1975. This year’s drop in enrollment was the biggest in the past 10 years.
The enrollment decline, which has a direct impact on state revenues, is primarily due to changing demographics. Schools built to accommodate Baby Boomers are larger than needed for the current generation. Families are smaller these days, and Jay County’s median age is higher than it used to be.
The Pennville closing is also a factor, with some families opting to send their students to Southern Wells Schools.
“We hope those students will come back,” Gulley told the board last month. “But are (large numbers of) kids going to other districts? The answer is no.”
More than 50 percent of this year’s net decline in enrollment is because of families moving out of Jay County.
Gulley is expected to review those discouraging numbers and their impact on the corporation’s financial situation at Tuesday’s meeting.
He’ll also be sketching out a couple of different options for reconfiguring schools if enrollment continues to drop at anywhere near its current rate.
“Our district has gone through big changes before,” Gulley said in September. “How do you plan for that?”
Option one would:
•Use the Jay County High School building for grades seven through 12, making changes to the instructional area at the southeast corner of the building to provide separation between younger and older students.
•Close General Shanks Elementary.
•Use the current East Elementary and East Jay Middle School buildings to accommodate kindergarten through sixth graders either as K-two and three-six facilities respectively or as two K-six schools.
•Keep Bloomfield Elementary School and Redkey Elementary School as kindergarten through grade six facilities.
•Close Westlawn Elementary School and convert the current West Jay building into a kindergarten through grade six facility.
Option two would be similar, but the high school building would have students from grades six through 12 while all
Under either option, the school corporation would go from nine buildings to six and would see significant savings.
Gulley has stressed that the options he has presented are “conceptual.” He’s inviting comment and questions not only through Tuesday’s session but via a survey on the Jay Schools website.
The community can access Gulley’s full 50-page report
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