Supt. Susan Lusi explains Elmhurst plan at committee meeting.

More than 30 residents — many, parents of children attending the Elmhurst school — packed the Portsmouth High School library last night to hear the finance subcommittee discuss the fate of this well-liked elementary. And at the end of the evening, the vote was unanimous to recommend to the full school committee that the building be closed at the end of this year.

"Our priority is to try to maintain quality programs for our kids," said Supt. Susan Lusi, explaining the rationale for the closing. The idea had been raised last year because of a budget shortfall and a facilities report that identified significant upgrade needs in the aging structure, but the financial picture this year had prompted revisiting the proposal. "The financial picture has only gotten worse," said Lusi, noting the problems at the state level, and $538K gap that needed to be closed in the upcoming 2010-11 school budget.

The first year savings, Lusi said, would be $92K, rising to $137K in year two after one-time transition costs.

Additional factors Lusi cited were declining enrollment, the loss of rental revenue from Newport County Special Ed (which is moving from Elmhurst to Middletown), and the retirement at the end of this year of one of the other elementary principals (Dr. Christina Martin of Hathaway).

According to the plan Lusi detailed for the committee, Elmhurst would close at the end of the year, and the remaining two elementaries would be converted to K-3 schools, absorbing kids from the Elmhurst area. All 4th and 5th graders would attend classes in the Middle School building, in a separate wing, with a separate bus stop, and a dedicated area for outdoor recess. Teachers would relocate with their grade levels, and there would be no additional principal hired, but rather a single position serving as combined house leader and guidance resource for the 4-5 wing. Art and music rooms would remain intact, students would have separate lunches, and the budget includes additional bus monitors to ensure separation of younger and older students.

There would be enough room for all the 4th and 5th students, Lusi said, in the currently unused wing of at PMS. The advantages of this configuration, said Lusi, would be consistency in the curriculum, as well as greater opportunities for grade-level professional development. The 4th and 5th grades could take advantage of greater specialization, Lusi said, citing the 4th grade at Hathaway, where one of the teachers delivers math instruction for all classes. Having all the classes in one place would also allow for flexible groupings that could be used for more differentiated instruction.

But Lusi was frank about the downside as well. "There will be some disruption," she said. "It's a big change." And it would not solve Portsmouth's facilities issues. "The Facilities Plan contains a large number of repairs," she said, and after 2011, the RI Dept. of Ed (RIDE) requires districts to have an approved facilities plan in order to be eligible for 30% reimbursement of capital improvements.

Finance committee member Marge Levesque asked about the possibility of modular classrooms, with an eye to perhaps keeping 4th graders at Melville and Hathaway, but Lusi ran through the yearly expenses and concluded it would be "cost prohibitive."

Member Cynthia Perrotti had several questions and a suggestion that the district should simply hold onto the building until 2013, avoiding what she called a "last-minute proposal" and an attempt to "end run around the committee."

Lusi countered that the committee had only gotten the three-year budget projections a few weeks ago, and that the long-term picture was a major factor. "It's never a happy event to close a school," she said. "We were trying to wait." She also noted that the discussion had been started a year ago, and that at time, May 1 had been identified as the cutoff date for an orderly transition. Lusi also reassured the committee that she had been working with the district leadership team, including all the building principals, and that they were on board.

Finance chair Michael Buddemeyer opened the floor to questions and comments from the attendees, and the majority of speakers voiced concerns about the proposal, with worries about transportation — both amount of time on the bus and younger kids sharing busses with 8th graders mentioned repeatedly — and several picked up the theme of keeping it open until 2013.

And some challenged the financial data. Parent Jonathan Harris said that he had analyzed the district's numbers last year and showed that the savings would not be as great, and he felt certain the same would be true now. "I am sure I could go through that and show you a loss," he said.

Chris Bicho praised the plan as well thought out, but still wondered about whether the proposed savings — which he identified as $191 per student — were worth the loss of the school.

Mike Daly wondered if parents from the rest of the community were as aware of the proposed closing as folks who lived in, as he called it, "SoPo." "We need to make sure the rest of the town takes ownership," he said.

After nearly an hour of questions and discussion, the committee voted to approve the proposal and send it to the school committee, where it will be voted on Tuesday night.

Full disclosure: I am the parent of a 4th grader at Hathaway, an appointed member of the Facilities Committee, and I live in QaNoFloClaSha (the quadrangle to the north of Flo's Clam Shack.)