When Morgan Mihok was considering moving back to Moon, she knew she wanted to live in a neighborhood that would allow her children to attend Hyde Elementary, a small school in a suburban neighborhood.
But now, Ms. Mihok is one of many parents worried about their children’s futures as the Moon Area School District considers closing the school and moving students to another elementary building, leading to concerns about class sizes, resources provided to children and transportation.
“I moved here because I wanted them to be part of this community and so we were all very sad,” Ms. Mihok said.
Moon is considering the change in response to expected growth in secondary grades, but the idea of school consolidation is not exclusive to the district. Elizabeth Forward recently announced potential plans to close three elementary schools and consolidate those students into two elementary centers. Pittsburgh Public is also floating the idea of closing buildings, but the district has not yet announced which schools could be included in the proposed plan.
While schools in the Pittsburgh region have different reasons for considering consolidation, a windfall of school closures could hit districts across the country in coming years. COVID-relief funds are ending in September, something that could exacerbate ongoing financial struggles. And several districts in the U.S. have had fewer students to educate as birth rates continue to decline and school enrollment is slow to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels.
“What's driving it is enrollment declined, really for the most part, and that’s been coming on gradually for awhile and is forecasted to continue,” Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University, said. And districts saw additional declines during the pandemic. But, she said, the federal relief money allowed districts to put off decisions around school closures “for a while because they were sort of flush with cash.”
Now, several districts across the nation are looking to closures and consolidation as that funding comes to an end. In Boston, district officials are contemplating closing dozens of schools; Wichita Public Schools in Kansas could close six schools as the district faces a $42 million deficit; and Jackson Public Schools in Mississippi voted in December to close or merge 13 schools.
According to Ms. Roza, once districts consider closing schools, they look at various factors such as enrollments and grades. But the biggest component is labor costs.
A March report written by Ms. Roza for EdSource found that if under-enrolled districts close 1 of every 15 schools it saves about 4% of a district’s budget, mostly in labor costs, which makes up the majority of costs in a district’s budget. That’s because, Ms. Roza said, it consolidates not only students but staff who were split between two schools, meaning there were “two principals, two nurses, two librarians, two counselors, and probably a bunch of half empty classrooms, so you'll have more teachers too. If you combined them into one school, it's one principal, one nurse, one counselor, one PE teacher.”
And she added that school closures avoid other cuts to things such as Advanced Placement classes, extracurricular activities and vital positions such as school counselors.
“The money is going to have to come from somewhere and I think that's the one piece that doesn't get communicated very well to the public,” Ms. Roza said. “They sort of think the decision is close the school or leave it open and everything stays the same. And it's like, close the school or leave it open and cut all of the electives, right? I think that that requires some back and forth.”
Locally, final decisions have not been made at Moon or Elizabeth Forward. Both districts are now collecting public comment on the proposed plans as they respond to enrollment changes while fiscally preparing for the future.
“I can’t find a way to get us to a point where we are ready for the next 30 years and maintain those buildings,” Elizabeth Forward Superintendent Keith Konyk said during a town hall meeting last week. “I can’t find a feasible way to do that that’s respectful of the community's resources. … That’s kind of where we’re coming from. It hurts me as much as it hurts everybody else.”
Local plans
At Elizabeth Forward, potential plans to consolidate three elementary schools — Greenock, Mt. Vernon and William Penn — stem from a 2018 facilities audit. But a fire that tore through the high school auditorium last year accelerated discussions regarding long-term sustainability of the district’s footprint and assets. Officials already unveiled a $27 million high school renovation project that would create a new auditorium and gymnasium while leaving space for possible future classroom expansion at the Elizabeth Township school.
Additional plans presented this month show elementary students at Elizabeth Forward — which currently operates six schools with 2,330 students — consolidating into two buildings.
Kindergarten through first graders would attend the current Central Elementary. Those in second through sixth grade would move into the middle school, and seventh and eighth graders would be relocated into the new wing of the high school.
Mr. Konyk cited several benefits under the plan, including resources being easily shared and improved class sizes. It would also allow the district to have two bus runs instead of three, which could lead to later start times at the high school. Money would also be saved on building maintenance and bills, and the number of staff would be reduced likely through attrition.
But while savings are expected, Mr. Konyk noted that they likely “won’t be realized until we get beyond the point of construction. … There’s most definitely the possibility that there will be tax increases just to get us through that time.”
Still, the plans were well received by four district residents who attended a Thursday town hall meeting.
“When you talk about socially bringing those kids together at an earlier age, I don’t even know that I am in favor of the separate schools,” Vanessa Hoblak, who has kids at William Penn, said. “That sounds fantastic.”
Crystal Aston, who graduated from Elizabeth Forward and whose children attend Central Elementary, said that following the meeting she “now feels more comfortable with it. ... My concern was I knew when I went to middle school here, close to 30 years ago now, it didn’t have the capacity to hold more than three grades for the kids. But now knowing the demographics and the classes are smaller it makes more sense.”
Similar discussions are taking place at Moon, where administrators are recommending the closure of Hyde Elementary School at the end of the 2024-25 school year and moving those students to Brooks Elementary. The other option being considered by school directors would remodel Hyde, allowing all five schools to remain open.
In addition to the five elementary schools, Moon also operates middle and high school buildings and educates a total of 4,035 students. The district’s superintendent did not respond to an email seeking comment.
According to a presentation given during town hall meetings last week, Hyde currently educates 213 students. Of those, 43% are economically disadvantaged while almost 14% are in special education classes, state data show. The school has a large Hispanic population, making up 23% of students, and 24% of children at the school are English language learners.
Hyde is the third most expensive elementary school in the district to operate, with an annual operating budget of $107,650. But the building, listed in fair/poor condition, needs $9.7 million in renovations, district officials said.
If Hyde were to close, administrators said, the number of additional staff needed for equitable supports could drop from 21 to eight across all elementary schools. Moon also said that combining students from Hyde and Brooks would allow the district to implement a multi-tiered system of supports to address diverse students needs and to allow for tailored instruction.
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And the closure would permit the district to fund construction projects at the middle and high school — including additional classroom and cafeteria space — that are needed now as those populations grow, Superintendent Barry Balaski said during a September meeting.
But sitting in the Mooncrest Neighborhood Programs community center one day last week, a group of parents were fearful and concerned for their children who currently attend Hyde. The majority of parents that afternoon were Spanish speakers, and spoke primarily through a translator. Many worried that services their children currently receive, such as English language classes, would be impacted by the potential closure.
“I thought that the school, the board, the teachers, the staff, for them I thought the priority is just the students but I don’t see it because if they want some kids to be successful they need to think about our kids and how they can support [them],” Yolanda Olivo, who has three kids at Hyde, said through the translator.
Others were concerned about longer transportation times, with many saying buses are often already late. They also said their children would likely spend less time at the community center where they receive other supports such as after school programming and homework help.
And Ms. Olivo added that it would be yet another transition for many kids who recently had major life changes when their families moved to the United States.
For Sebastian Vaquero, who sat with his wife Carlorina Vaquero, the district’s plans do not consider the impacts the school closure will have on current families and those who come to the district in the future because families were not able to provide ample input in the process.
Now, he’s asking Moon officials to review the proposal and consider that parents in the Hyde community would be willing to help where necessary.
“I’m pretty sure parents like me in this community would like to come up front if they need support,” Mr. Vaquero said through the translator, “let’s say in budget, we all can [help] if they need money and also if in the future they would need people to help in remodeling the school.”
First Published: March 17, 2024, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: March 18, 2024, 6:04 p.m.
