Shutting Schools: Closing a Few to Keep the Rest Healthy
Editor’s Note: This article is part of Civil Beat’s ongoing coverage of school consolidations in Hawaii. Read our related coverage:
The Hawaii State Board of Education is considering closing five schools in the coming months. Closing all five of them could save the department $3.2 million per year.
School consolidations are one way for education departments to save money and keep up with changing demographics. But the Hawaii Department of Education and the board have a poor track record of using them — they have only consolidated two schools since 1987.
The reasons for keeping inefficient schools open range from the logistical (traffic congestion) to the emotional (community members remember attending school there). Considered another way, though, this is an area where Hawaii could find significant savings amidst large budget cuts.
The department’s most recent studies analyzing school consolidations began in 2008.
| Under Consideration | District | Annual Savings* |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Kaiser | |
| 2. | Kaiser | |
| 3. | Kalani | |
| 4. | Farrington | |
| 5. | Farrington |
(Click the dollar amounts to view each school’s full consolidation report.)
*Projected
The department of education began a series of school consolidation studies in December 2008. State law requires the department to conduct the analyses if certain conditions exist in order to make sure school facilities are being used efficiently. (Read our companion piece outlining the conditions under which studies are implemented here.)
A wave of staggering budget cuts in 2008 gave the department greater incentive to find more ways to save money.
But in the last two years, only two out of xix schools considered for consolidation were actually closed.
In 2009, Wailupe became the first Hawaii public school to be closed since 1987 when Anuenue Elementary School was consolidated with Palolo Elementary School.
Next was Keanae Elementary School on Maui, which hadn’t seen a student since 2003. It was costing the department $32,000 a year just to maintain an empty building.
| Considered | Complex | Spared | Closed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Kaiser | ||
| 2. | Waialua | ||
| 3. | Kahuku | ||
| 4. | Hana | ||
| 5. | Molokai | ||
| 6. | Kohala |
(Click the Xs to view each school’s full consolidation report.)
What It Means
Many consider the term “consolidation” simple code for “closure,” but the process is more involved than just shutting a school’s doors and sending everyone home.
Because of the complexity of the process, the objections to consolidation can vary. Some protest it citing logistical problems. Others just have strong emotional or sentimental attachments to their neighborhood schools.
When a school is consolidated, its students and some of its teachers are sent to adjoining schools. The principal and administrative staff, along with teachers who don’t get moved with their students, are reassigned to other schools.
“We are always short of school administrators, so there’s never a problem finding a home for them,” Moore said. “We’ve never had trouble finding a home for anybody. The department generally hires 1,200 new employees each year. So if you consolidate a school and it results in 10 fewer jobs, instead of hiring 1,200 new employees that year, we would hire 1,190.”
The department has the option of keeping the buildings for district and state-level offices, or it can return the property to the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources. Ideally though, the department saves hundreds of thousands of dollars in administrative and utility costs. With the two closures the board has approved so far, it is saving the department an estimated $962,000 per year in operating costs, and another $10.8 million in backlogged repairs and improvements.
How It Works
Determining which schools will be shut starts with data-filled consolidation studies. The studies are conducted complex by complex by Randy Moore, assistant superintendent of School Facilities and Support Services, with the help of other department employees.
Each study is reviewed by the superintendent, who shares it with the Hawaii State Board of Education. The board holds a public hearing, after which the superintendent makes a recommendation to the board. The board then votes on whether to follow the superintendent’s recommendation. The board’s decision is final.
The education department hasn’t spent additional money or hired outside consultants to conduct the studies, but several employees have spent considerable time on them. Moore estimates that he alone spends 40 hours on each study.
But in most cases, the board and superintendent decide they don’t want to consolidate the schools after all.
The board has followed the superintendent’s recommendation in every consolidation case so far, Moore said. And although he is not involved in the decision-making process — he just provides the initial analysis — Moore says he has agreed with the superintendent’s recommendations.
Why So Few Closures?
There are advantages and disadvantages in every proposed school consolidation. Each study cites several. The disadvantages listed below for each school apparently outweighed the anticipated economic benefits and preserved these five schools from closure.
Common threads emerged: the potential loss of a “family feeling,” less individualized attention for students once they merged into larger neighboring schools and the possibility of fewer extracurricular or leadership opportunities due to crowding.
Wailupe Elementary:
- A possible increase in traffic congestion in Aina Haina.
- A more crowded cafeteria at the school Wailupe would be consolidated with.
- Less individualized attention for students because of increased class sizes.
- Fewer opportunities for individual students to participate in certain group activities.
- Less “family” feeling.
Haleiwa:
- Moving 6th-graders to the nearby high and intermediate schools would require reprioritizing school funds.
- Potential additional costs for creating a middle school setting on intermediate and high school campuses.
- Returning the school building to the state or city would mean the education department could no longer use it for other programs housed there.
- Fewer leadership opportunities for students once they are consolidated with another school.
- Less “family” feeling.
- Possibly fewer opportunities to participate in after-school activities because of overcrowding.
- A likely dip in student achievement until a new common campus culture could be established with.
- Eliminates alternatives for public school education in the Haleiwa/Waialua community.
Kaaawa Elementary:
- Enrollment at the school has remained steady.
- Student achievement has been exemplary.
- Closing the school would negatively impact the community’s social hub.
- Students wouldn’t be able to walk to school anymore.
- Students would attend elementary school in one complex and secondary school in another.
Keanae Elementary:
- “None.”
Maunaloa Elementary:
- Additional costs for transporting children to a neighboring school.
- Recent expensive repairs to Maunaloa would be wasted.
- Daily in-class support and observation would be more difficult in a larger school.
- Less individualized attention for students, especially educational disadvantaged ones.
- No academic advantage to consolidation.
Kohala Middle:
- High school and elementary campuses aren’t equipped to house the additional students.
- Increased traffic and parking congestion near the elementary and high schools.
- The proposed consolidation configuration had been found inefficient and inequitable.
- A decrease in the number of extra-curricular programs.
- Decreased Weighted Student Formula funding would limit the number and variety of course offerings.
- Fewer services and less attention for students.
- Academic momentum would be lost.
- Middle schoolers would have fewer leadership opportunities.
More Closures in the Future
For better or worse, education officials predict more closures in the department’s future. The pace will probably pick up as the department looks at more urban schools. It gave first priority to studying complexes and schools with major pending construction projects — several of which were rural.
“We wanted to do a consolidation study before we spent a lot of money on fixing a school,” Moore explained.
In the case of defunct Keanae, it was costing the department $32,000 to maintain the inactive building. It would have cost $1.1 million to renovate the termite-damaged building sufficiently to reopen it for 21 students, plus an additional $300,000 annually to operate.
In spite of the strength of the department’s case for closure, at least 171 area residents petitioned to keep the school open. And each of the other five schools considered for consolidation has entailed , and general .
Despite neighborhood disapproval, Moore predicts more school closures in the department’s future.
“I think as these studies come to the urban Honolulu elementary schools, you’ll see more where the department will recommend closure,” he said.
Coming Tomorrow: Read about the consolidation battle at Queen Lydia Liliuokalani Elementary School.
