Board votes to close Barstow Intermediate School

Clarification updated Wednesday at 10:30 a.m.: In Tuesday’s story, “Board votes to close BIS,” the Desert Dispatch stated that 880 students from Barstow Intermediate School will be dispersed among the district’s eight elementary schools.

We want to clarify that while BIS, which serves 880 fifth and sixth grade students, will be closed by the 2009-10 school year, only its current fifth graders will be dispersed among elementary schools, since current sixth graders will move on to Barstow Junior High School next year. Current fourth graders who would have attended BIS in the fall will remain at their elementary schools, which will become K-6.

Also, current BIS fifth graders will be dispersed among seven elementary schools — Hinkley School, a K-8 school, is not included.

BARSTOW • In a narrow decision, the school board voted to close Barstow Intermediate School by the 2009-10 school year, and send fifth and sixth graders back to elementary school on Tuesday night.

Approximately 880 students from BIS will be dispersed among eight elementary schools, returning elementary schools to K-6, according to past proposals on school closures or mergers by district officials.

Almost 40 positions, ranging from a principal to special education teachers to food service workers, will be cut as a result.

Closing BIS, located on South Avenue G, will save the district approximately $750,000 each year, according to reports from district officials.

Board president Julie Clemmer said that finally deciding on a school closure was a big milestone, but that the board still has “so much more to do.” The board still needs to identify approximately $1 million more in specific cuts.

Clemmer, along with board members Ernest Vogt and Barbara Rose, cast votes in favor of closing BIS. Board members Ace Acevedo and Mary Rodriguez dissented.

Immediately after the vote to close BIS passed, several audience members slowly started to exit the auditorium. One father of a student angrily shouted that he would pull his child out of the district.

BIS teacher Kim Sager said she had attended past meetings and was not surprised that the board elected to close her school.

“They had a big dollar amount on our head,” said Sager.

Sager, a special education teacher of five years at BIS, raised concerns that students in programs like her self-contained special education class, which draws students from as far as Hinkley, would suffer as a result of being dispersed to elementary schools that may not be able to offer the same services.

Lynn Mendez, a fifth grade teacher at BIS, said that her fifth graders talked about the possibility of their school closing down and expressed concern during her class on Tuesday.

The five-member school board, along with district administrators and the budget committee, have wrestled for weeks with cutting millions from the district’s budget as a result of the state’s fiscal crisis.

Closing down schools remained a hot-button issue among the community. Several parents, students and teachers had come before the board and made emotional pleas to not close schools since possible closures were first brought up in January.

Since then, school board and budget committee meetings regularly drew crowds of more than a hundred. After the Feb. 11 budget committee meeting, where more than 200 people flooded the district office board room, the meetings have been relocated to a larger venue at the Barstow Junior High School’s multipurpose room.

The list of possible closure or merger scenarios has fluctuated, ballooning from three main possibilities to up to 14 at one point.

Superintendent Susan Levine said she will meet with BIS staff members on Wednesday to discuss the upcoming changes, and also plans to meet with BIS parents next week.

Levine said that the board members acted in a “fiscally responsible” way by deciding to close a school.
“We run a very lean show here,” said Levine.

She also noted that the board members chose the scenario that will likely affect less students than if an elementary school were shut down or combined with another school.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4122 or elee@desertdispatch.com