Friday, January 05, 2007

School board to consider school closure plan next week; vote scheduled for Jan. 24

When the Oshkosh Area School District Board of Education meets next Wednesday, one of the bigger issues it will deal with is the school closure plan recommended this past week by the committee established to research the district’s various school facilities.

In general, the recommendation calls for school closings, boundary line shifts, new construction and possibly two spending referendums over a 10-year period. Specifically, Sunset Elementary School, currently housed in Perry Tipler Middle School, would close in the 2007-08 school year and students would be sent to Read Elementary. Also in the 2007-08 school year, Green Meadow Elementary would become a kindergarten though second-grade school and Lakeside Elementary would be converted to a third- through fifth-grade school.

In the second year of the plan, Lincoln Elementary School will be closed in the 2008-09 school year and those students would be transferred to Merrill Elementary. That same school year a referendum would be planned for 2009-10 which, if it passed, would rebuild Jacob Shapiro, Green Meadow and Oakwood elementary schools. Emmeline Cook would be added onto as part of the referendum and South Park Middle School would be closed with some other use established for the South Park structure.

Though the board will discuss the recommendation on Wednesday, no vote will actually be taken until the board meeting two weeks after that, on Jan. 24. Once the vote is made there will be a series of information sessions for the district scheduled so parents and other interested parties can learn more about the early stages of the 10-year plan as well as subsequent ones.

Both the Jan. 10 and 24 board meetings are open to the public and the public can comment at both.

You can read more about the plan by visiting the district's web site at http://www.oshkosh.k12.wi.us.

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