By Burt Mummolo, FOX23 News
In a six to one vote, the TPS school board has voted to close and/or consolidate 17 schools in order to save $12 million.
It was a packed house at the education service center, with 30 people signed up to sound off on concerns about the district’s plan.
“What a difficult situation you guys are in, and what a difficult decision you all have to make this evening,” said one woman.
Time and again, members of various schools made the pitch to reconsider or extend more time.
“Please do not make closing Mitchell the final answer before giving the Mitchell community an opportunity to become a part of the solution,” said another speaker.
“17 schools on the list,” said John Croisant.
Before the meeting began board member Croisant broke down the tough reality of the numbers.
“We’ve already cut $6.6 million dollars from our admin budget for this school year, and we need to get at $20 million, total. So we still have another $12 million that we have to come up with,” he said,
That massive figure and how the district got here came under fire from some speakers.
“You are not learning from history,” said community activist Darryl Bright, reminding the board about past closures and stunned the district found itself in a similar situation.
“With all that history and you didn’t look at it, are you kidding me? And with these numbers that have gone out of this district, what were you doing, what were you thinking, how were you going to deal with this issue?” he said.
“How did this district get into such a colossal mess?,” said Ken Malloy of NorthStar, who laid into the board for a lack of vision.
“Where were the warnings? Where was the corrective action? Where was the accountability? And perhaps most important where was the public explanation that district was headed towards a crisis of this magnitude?” he said.
A $12 million dollar quandary, with no easy path forward for the board.
“We have three options tonight, we can accept the proposal, we could change the proposal and approve something different, or we can reject it,” said Croisant.
