Shutting Schools: Changing the Rules to Turn Off the Lights
Editor’s Note: This article is part of Civil Beat’s ongoing coverage of school consolidations in Hawaii. Read our related coverage:
When school enrollment is low, space is aplenty and money is tight, the Hawaii Department of Education has a fallback plan: shutting schools.
Hawaii has had a school consolidation policy , but the department has hardly used it for the last two decades. And until it amended its rules last year, the board hadn’t closed a single school since 1987.
Closing schools saves money, but only two schools have been closed since last year. The department is considering five more.
Under the law, consolidations, or closures, are optional: The rules require education officials merely study the matter and only under certain circumstances. The decision about whether to close or consolidate a school is left up to the Hawaii State Board of Education, which first receives a recommendation from the superintendent.
It used to be much more complicated and it involved what some felt was a conflict of interest. Until the department amended its policy in 2009, each complex area superintendent was responsible for commissioning a task force to nominate schools under their own jurisdiction for closure.
“It was an uncomfortable position for the (complex area superintendents), whose job it is to support the schools in their complex,” said Randy Moore, assistant superintendent of School Facilities and Support Services. “It made them look like the bad guys because they wanted to close some of the schools.”
The new policy made the state superintendent responsible for commissioning the consolidation studies and making recommendations. This streamlined the process and took the complex area superintendents “out of the middle of it,” Moore said. “This way they can blame the state.”
It also could be one of the reasons the department has picked up the pace on its consolidation studies in the last two years.
There are three cases in which a superintendent must initiate a study to determine whether a school should be consolidated:
- One-third or more of the square footage in a school’s existing buildings needs to be replaced or improved to meet prescribed standards.
- One-third or more of the available classrooms are in excess of what the school needs to deliver educational programs to its students.
- Enrollment decline has or will limit the school’s ability to provide “the range of educational opportunities offered at adjoining schools with larger enrollments.”
One condition for consolidation is that adjoining schools must be able to accommodate the relocating students without having to shell out a lot of money for capital improvements.
The law outlines a process for conducting and reviewing the studies:
- The department’s assistant superintendent of School Facilities and Support Services conducts the consolidation studies and provides analysis.
- Other department employees contribute to them.
- The superintendent reviews each study and reports to the education board.
- The board reviews the report and directs the superintendent to hold a public hearing within 60 days.
- Following the hearing, the superintendent makes a recommendation to the board.
- The board votes on whether to follow the superintendent’s recommendation. The board’s decision is final.
(Read the full school consolidation policy in the Hawaii Administrative Rules, .)
Coming Tomorrow: Read about the consolidation battle at Queen Lydia Liliuokalani Elementary School.
