Superintendent reverses recommendation to close Perrymont

Lynchburg City Schools Superintendent Paul McKendrick recommended Tuesday that Perrymont Elementary School remain open as a K-5 school.

His announcement reversed an earlier recommendation to close the elementary school and move in preschool students from Hutcherson Early Learning Center and other schools.

McKendrick would still close the Hutcherson building and move students from Hutcherson to Perrymont. He said Perrymont has classrooms for the Hutcherson students in addition to the elementary students.

The recommendation came as part of McKendrick’s formal budget proposals. In those proposals, McKendrick recommended eliminating approximately 111 staff members, including six administrator positions, 61 teaching positions, 19 teacher assistants, and 28 other staff positions. He said he aimed for staff cuts to be across the board, rather than limited to one area.

McKendrick also called for the elimination of middle school sports and the addition of fees for high school athletics among other changes. Fees at the high school level would be limited per family and would likely include a sliding scale.

Initially, McKendrick presented the new Perrymont plan as one of two options for the board, but revealed midway through the meeting that he now favors the new plan, which would save the division approximately $336,500, about half the savings of the plan which included closing Perrymont as a K-5 school.

McKendrick said he sympathizes with Perrymont community members and wants to avoid the appearance of division between the administration and the board. Several board members had expressed skepticism about the plan to close Hutcherson.

Nonetheless, he remains concerned about Perrymont’s failure to meet federal standards.

“We still have to consider no matter what we do, we are still under the gun as far as No Child Left Behind,” McKendrick said. “We have to get that school to the point where it is making standards and we are not looking at this next year.”

Following McKendrick’s announcement, school board member Albert Billingsly, who opposed the Perrymont closure, choked up as he commended the work of the superintendent and his staff in the budget crisis.

“I, too, agree that the administration has been over and above anything we could ask,” Billingsly said.

The division is facing a likely deficit of $8.7 million rather than the $17.8 million worst-case scenario feared based on a proposal from Gov. Bob McDonnell and the threat of a possible cut of more than $3 million from the city.

School board member Regina Dolan-Sewell warned that it may be hard to keep Perrymont open if City Council decides to cut funding to the schools, rather than implementing level funding as City Manager Kimball Payne has proposed.

School Board members also discussed the recommendation to eliminate middle school sports. The board members, McKendrick and administration staff members discussed the possibility of possible alternatives including a scaled-back middle school sports program with fees or instituting an intramural program.

Board member Charlie White asked the superintendent to look into ways to preserve middle school sports in some form.

“It made a bigger difference for me than any classroom I ever sat in,” said White.

Board member Tom Webb said intramural sports work well, based on his experience as a middle school principal.

McKendrick did not publicly reveal all of the cuts he is formally proposing to the board, because he said he has not yet informed some of the specific staff members who would lose their positions.

He also said that he and his staff will need to come up with a couple hundred thousand more dollars in cuts to offset the Perrymont decision.

The board agreed to meet for a work session at 5:30 p.m. Thursday to discuss the budget before meeting next Tuesday to vote on the budget proposals.

The board also voted to close middle and elementary schools on May 4, which is an election day.