I don’t have the graphs and figures referred to in this document, but I do have the main text. This is the document that was given to the District 150 school board to support the administration’s recommendation to convert Woodruff High School to a grade school:

Narrative Summary on
High School Repurposing Analysis

Staff of PSA-Dewberry were asked to do an analysis of the feasibility of repurposing either the Woodruff High School or Peoria High School facilities as B-8 Community Learning Centers. That analysis involved the Educational Consultant for the B-8 new schools (Best Practices Inc.) and is summarized in this narrative. This summary also includes district-provided data and analyses of financial considerations and attendance boundaries.

This narrative summarizes the presentation by Ken Hinton, Superintendent, and Paul Kouri, Architect, PSA-Dewberry, to the board on July 20, 2009.

Status of the district.

Financial Considerations
The school district is currently facing financial challenges which necessitate reconsideration of the use of high school facilities. Improvement of the district’s financial condition is the primary reason for making changes. This also provides an opportunity to improve the educational services to all students. A reduction in the number of schools will result in savings in the number of staff needed to operate the school (administrative, custodial, teaching and support staff). An analysis by district staff shows that closing a high school saves money by reducing the district payroll by approximately 45 total staff members.

Another financial consideration is the use of Public Building Commission funds as a source for building construction and updating school facilities. There is a time limit on the utilization of Public Building Commission funding; construction must be substantially completed by June 30, 2011.

Educational Benefits
There are additional educational benefits in consolidating the district’s four high schools into three. Reduction in the number of high schools will reduce duplication of staff and enable a more focused and effective use of staff. Reducing the number of high schools will increase enrollment in courses with less demand. This will enable these courses to continue to be offered and will keep all high schools comprehensive. With a wider array of courses offered, the high schools are more likely to retain and attract students and families to the district.

Current Status of the District
Figure A shows the current status of the district and locations of the school facilities.

Previous Decisions
There are a number of previous decisions which provide guidelines for repurposing a high school. These include the following decisions made by the school board.

1. To close one high school
2. To close primary schools Kingman and Irving
3. To build new schools following the B-8 or K-8 model.
4. To utilize the remaining funds from the PBC for the Math, Science and Technology Academy, Career Vocational Center and a non-traditional school.

The requirements for the Peoria Public Schools B-8 Community Learning Centers (CLC) were developed through a community charette process in 2006 and accepted by the board in 2007. The approved CLC program includes access to and utilization of outdoor areas and green space, a village concept to encourage continuity and professional learning community development, space for project work and in-depth 21st century learning, space for extended day and week programs for students with community involvement, space for community use for adult education, neighborhood and community organizations, and child care support programming. In addition, the CLC design includes zoning of the building to enable community use during non-school times.

Decisions to be Made

The next decision which needs to be made is which high school can be repurposed most effectively. To assist in making that decision a financial analysis was done by district staff to see if there would be a financial advantage in repurposing one high school over the other. A utilization analysis was also completed to see which building could be used most effectively to meet the educational vision of the B-8 schools. The location of students in Kingman and Irving attendance area were also analyzed.

Financial Analysis Results

Financial scenarios were developed and then analyzed. These are summarized in graph 1.

Scenario 1: Current Status with all four high schools open. What will happen financially if a high school is not closed?

Scenario 2: What will happen financially if Woodruff remains the High School and Peoria High is repurposed as B-8 Community Learning Center?

Scenario 3: What will happen financially if Peoria High remains the High School and Woodruff becomes the B-8 Community Learning Center?

The Graph shows a slight financial advantage to having Woodruff repurposed as a B-8 (Scenario 3). A busing analysis shows approximately $45,000 less in busing costs if Woodruff is repurposed. However most of the $45,000 is reimbursed with a final impact on the budget of approximately $10,000.

Under the Woodruff B-8 Scenario, the busing analysis also showed that students attending from the Irving and Kingman attendance areas will spend less time riding buses.

Educational Analysis as a High School.

Both facilities are currently functioning well as high schools.

Utilization Analysis

The following questions were used to guide the process of analyzing how best to use the repurposed high school.

Question 1: Could the Kingman and Irving primary students all be placed together in one of the high school facilities (either Woodruff or Peoria High)?

The answer to this question is No. Research supports the district’s movement to a K-8 or B-8 model instead of separate primary and middle schools. Keeping Lincoln as a separate middle school would continue the separation of the primary and middle school. This is an opportunity to continue the positive B-8 initiative in the district.

Question 2: If we combined Lincoln middle school students with Kingman and Irving students, could this new B-8 school be placed in one high school?

The answer to this question is No. Two “schools” would be required to accommodate the approximately 1000 student population which would result from combining the two primary schools with the reconfigured Lincoln middle school. One thousand children in one elementary school program is not recommended.

Question 3: Could a closed high school and Lincoln school be combined to create the complete B-8 model?

Yes. The analysis of the spaces available in the two high school buildings revealed that either high school facility could be repurposed to create one B-8 Community Learning Center. Additional space will be required for either high school facility to meet the guidelines of the Community Learning Center previously accepted by the school board. Two B-8 schools would be required to provide the approved CLC program. The addition of Lincoln school is required to have adequate, efficient and effective space for the two new schools.

PSA then analyzed the differences between these two options: Peoria High plus Lincoln repurposed; and Woodruff plus Lincoln repurposed. (see figures b-l)

The primary differences in these two alternatives are as follows:

• Location of student population from the school
• Length of time students are riding on the bus
• Accessibility of shared community resources to both B-8 Centers
• Access to outdoors and green space

III. Recommendation

After reviewing the previous decisions and the analyses of student distribution, financial scenarios and facility utilization, the recommendation is to repurpose Lincoln and Woodruff schools as two new B-8. (See figure M.) Lincoln School would house all components of the B-8 model except for early childhood and the community components. The early childhood and community components at the Woodruff facility will be available for use by the Lincoln Community Learning Center children and families. Air conditioning already in the Lincoln facility will enable this B-8 CLC to be a year-round school.

The second B-8 CLC will be located in the Woodruff facility. Additional upper floor spaces not fully utilized by the B-8 components will enable this CLC to serve as a special focus school with the focus yet to be determined.

The last recommendation is to develop a task force to review the vision of high school education in the district and determine how to best meet needs of all students.