Three Lynchburg school board members said Tuesday that Superintendent Paul McKendrick will need to do more to win their votes for the closure of Perrymont Elementary.
Albert Billingsly, Darin Gerdes and Charlie White all said they wanted more information before they would support closing the school as a K-5 elementary.
Gerdes and Billingsly both said the superintendent had convinced them to close the Hutcherson Early Learning Center building, but they were still not sold on dispersing Perrymont Elementary students to other schools.
“Philosophically, I have a problem with the demise of the neighborhood school ... I really wonder if the disruption to Perrymont is more trouble than it’s worth,” Gerdes said. “I would like to see alternatives before I am convinced this is the way to go.”
During the meeting, McKendrick suggested that the school board should consider hiring an outside firm to draw up plans to adjust the division’s school districts.
McKendrick had previously proposed such a move in conjunction with the closing of Perrymont, as a way to ensure that all the schools have more than 300 students, which is necessary for certain state aid, and that all schools have enough reduced-lunch students to be eligible for Title I assistance. Currently, five elementary schools have fewer than 300 students and Bedford Hills Elementary is not a Title I school.
McKendrick said that hiring an outside firm would bring in expertise his staff does not have, and avoid some bias or accusation of bias in the district adjustment process. He said he did not yet know how much it would cost to hire such a firm.
McKendrick’s comments sparked questions from White and board member Keith Anderson about whether, by that logic, it might then make sense to ask such an outside firm to weigh in on choosing to possibly close an elementary school.
School Board Vice Chairman Tom Webb also hit a skeptical note.
“I’m not sure there is that much savings there,” Webb said, looking at chart provided to show savings from closing Perrymont.
The discussion came during a presentation by Elementary Education Director Michael Rudder.
Rutter explained the actual savings for closing Perrymont elementary school would likely be $665,000 rather than $875,000. This is because five of the 11 teaching positions that would be eliminated would be axed anyway under recommendations to increase class size for the division as a whole.
This point was also one of the concerns raised by Perrymont teachers and staff who questioned the $875,000 figure.
School Board members discussed scheduling a meeting and a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. March 23 in addition to the scheduled meeting March 16. Several board members indicated that they would prefer to vote on budget proposals presented by McKendrick at the later date.
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