Two northern schools submit closure plans

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

Principal Monique Flickinger is confident that Poudre School District won't close down her building, Lincoln Middle School.

"We're trending positive," she said, referring to the five trouble areas identified by the district.

PSD is taking a hard look at underutilized schools in an effort to save money. According to a board of education resolution from last June, "the district cannot afford to keep all of its schools open without cuts elsewhere."

Lincoln is one of five schools in the district asked to prepare closure and consolidation plans this fall. The other four are elementary schools including Irish, another northern school.

In addition, nine elementary schools and two middle schools were asked to prepare plans to be more innovative and cost efficient. The five schools that could potentially be closed had to submit both types of plans.

All plans were turned in to the district on Nov. 17, and during Thanksgiving week each school defended its plan or plans before district officials.

The school board will hear a final recommendation from the Underutilized Schools Advisory Group on Jan. 11 and will vote on the recommendation Jan. 25.

The day after the schools submitted their plans, a different report came down from the Colorado Department of Education. The Comprehensive Appraisal for District Improvement acknowledged PSD's high performance overall, but it was critical of the district on several fronts, including the gaps in student achievement among low-income and Hispanic children.

Lincoln and Irish serve large numbers of both low-income and Hispanic populations.

The state report questioned the district's leadership style, the consequences of school choice and the process used to identify schools for potential closure. It suggested that district leadership may not fully understand the effect of poverty on learning.

Irish Principal Lynette Salzman said she believes that as a result of the state report, district officials may be more receptive to arguments for keeping her school open. "Maybe our information will be more openly received," she said.

Lincoln defended

Flickinger, in defending her school, noted that figures used to prepare the negative report about Lincoln were based on 2005 through 2008.

"Our enrollment was in a nosedive" during those years, she acknowledged, but the last two years have seen enrollment growth. "We're recapturing our neighborhood," she said.

Current enrollment at Lincoln is 487, Flickinger said. She anticipates a large class of sixth-graders entering the school next fall and predicts total enrollment of 545 next year. Flickinger thinks that 600 students is the optimum size for Lincoln, although PSD lists its capacity as 720.

A big percentage of Lincoln's neighborhood students choice out of the school, but Flickinger said that trend is also changing. Current statistics show that 48 percent choose a nonneighborhood school, but only 34 percent of this year's sixth-graders choiced out.

Lincoln is "offering what students want to do" at the school, Flickinger maintained, including the use of technology in daily teaching, integrating the International Baccalaureate philosophy thoroughly into the curriculum and offering service learning that is meaningful.

One service-learning project involves annual trips to Nicaragua to help in elementary schools there.

In Lincoln's closure/consolidation plan, Flickinger maintained that Lincoln is too large to consolidate with another school, so the population would have to be divided among Cache La Poudre, Lesher and Blevins middle schools, putting those schools at or above capacity. The English Language Learner program, now based at Lincoln, would need to be relocated, she said, possibly to Boltz or Blevins.

Flickinger also cited concerns from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Larimer County, which has a facility next to Lincoln, that club attendance would drop significantly if Lincoln were to close.

Irish improving

Irish Elementary has struggled with low scores on the Colorado Student Assessment Program, but Salzman argues that achievement growth has been impressive.

In CSAP testing last spring, students showed 60 percent growth in their reading scores, whereas 39 percent is considered adequate growth. Students also exceeded adequate growth in writing, and they were close to making the improvement mark in math.

Irish works hard to close the achievement gap, Salzman said. The school does a lot of small-group work, with three to five students, to help children get up to speed on academic skills. The school also has a community center on campus, where parents take English classes and learn how to help their children with homework.

The Irish closure/consolidation plan listed various possibilities, such as moving the dual language program to Putnam and dividing the rest of the students between Tavelli and Cache La Poudre. The option of eliminating the dual language program was also listed.

Disadvantages of closing Irish that were listed in the plan included the loss of grant funding that is now based on the number of English language learners at Irish. Also, the plan noted, if Irish were closed, space available for early childhood programs such as Head Start would be reduced. Irish currently has 73 preschoolers enrolled in Head Start.

Irish developed two major plans for innovations and efficiencies. The team proposed expanding the dual language program to include preschoolers and possibly middle school students. They also suggested creating a comprehensive Irish Community Center that would include existing programs and create a central location for support and volunteer programs.

Salzman said there were pros and cons involved with developing detailed plans for the district. On one hand, staff and parents identified projects that would improve instruction. The down side, she said, was the amount of time and research required by the assignment. The intensity of work, Salzman said, reminded her of doing the thesis for her master's degree.

If Irish were to close, Salzman said, "this neighborhood would lose an amazing community center and an opportunity for the northwest area to have a dual language program." The only other dual language program, she noted, is at Harris Elementary, a choice-in school with a waiting list.

Irish has some choice-in students, Salzman said, but the school has room for many more.

"I want things to be perceived around the good work that's going on here for kids and families," Salzman stated.

Besides Lincoln and Irish, the schools that submitted consolidation/closure reports were Beattie, Lopez and Putnam elementary schools. Elementary schools that prepared only innovation/cost efficiency plans included the three mountain schools, Cache La Poudre, Laurel, Riffenburgh, Timnath, Harris Bilingual and Lab School for Creative Learning. The middle schools were Blevins and Boltz.

The individual school plans may be reviewed on the PSD web site, www.psdschools.org. Click on the link to "Underutilized Schools.