Independence board votes to close school

INDEPENDENCE - The Independence school board voted to close East Elementary School last night, a decision that will move the district's middle school students to the high school next year.

Three board members voted in favor of closing the school, which will save the district more than $200,000.

John Christensen and Stacy Henderson voted against the proposal. Christensen asked board members to table closing East for two weeks so other options could be fully investigated.

“I think if we review the East cuts for two weeks and still feel the same, I'll be all for it,” he said.

Closing East was one of more than $800,000 worth of cuts approved by the board for the 2010-11 school year. Superintendent Devin Embray said the cuts are necessary to correct the district's fund balances and save Independence from possible closure.

The district is expected to have a negative fund balance of $1.5 million at the end of the 2009-10 school year. At the same time, the district's spending authority could decrease from $1.6 million to $1.3 million.

The more a district's spending authority decreases, the more likely state education officials are to come in and take over a district and possibly close it.

“We will pull through this and our district will survive,” Embray said.

District administrators posted a list of more than $1 million possible cuts online earlier this month. Those included reducing staff and freezing administrative salaries.

Board members said closing East saved the district from reducing more staff and cutting programs.

“I will always choose programming over bricks and mortar,” board member Kathryn Jensen said.

Staff positions cut included a high school Spanish teacher, a middle school science teacher, a K-12 music teacher and an art teacher.