Study Warns of Limited Savings from Closing Schools

Edited by I, Praetorian

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Closing schools doesn’t save air academic progress. And it says school districts can help generate some acceptance for a downsizing plan by involving the community early and establishing clear reasons for why certain schools must close.

The report, released Oct. 19, was written by the Philadelphia Research Initiative to foreshadow what the 154,000-student Philadelphia district can expect over the next few years as it plans to close a number of schools because of declining enrollments. The district currently has 70,000 empty seats, according to the report. School administrators have not decided which schools to close and how many, but internal school documents published in June by the website Philadelphia Public School Notebook listed 26 schools that could be shut down.

The report looks at school closings in Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, Mo., Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and the District of Columbia. Each of those districts has closed at least 20 schools in the past decade, and most of the buildings have been shuttered in the recent past.

For example, Pittsburgh, with around 25,300 students, went through a “right-sizing” effort that closed 22 schools in 2006. The district is now discussing closing seven more schools. The 17,400-student Kansas City district closed 29 schools—nearly half of its school buildings—in 2010.

A Matter of Context

Closing schools does save money, but in districts whose budgets add up to hundreds of millions of dollars or more, the final savings are relatively small, said Larry Eichel, the program director for the Philadelphia Research Initiative, which is a project of the Pew Charitable Trusts. Philadelphia’s current annual budget, for example, is $2.8 billion.

Six Cities Shuttering Buildings

To inform deliberations over plans to close schools in Philadelphia, researchers conducted case studies of recent school closings in six other urban districts.

Chicago
Closure Period: 2001-2009
Number Closed: 44
Buildings in Use: 602

Detroit
Closure Period: 2009-2010
Number Closed: 59
Buildings in Use: 130

Kansas City, Mo.
Closure Period: 2009-2010
Number Closed: 29
Buildings in Use: 29

Milwaukee
Closure Period: 2005-2010
Number Closed: 20
Buildings in Use: 137

Pittsburgh
Closure Period: 2006
Number Closed: 22
Buildings in Use: 64

District of Columbia
Closure Period: 2008
Number Closed: 23
Buildings in Use: 11

*As of 2011.

Source: The Philadelphia Research Initiative

“The savings are under a million dollars per school,” Mr. Eichel said. “That’s real money, but not money that changes anything fundamentally.”

The biggest chunk of district money is spent on teachers, and those staff members typically are still needed, just at different locations.

A district also has to pay for some maintenance on shuttered buildings so they don’t become neighborhood eye sores.

And districts should not expect a windfall from selling their old buildings. Those facilities are undesirable to businesses for some of the same reasons that districts decided to close them: The buildings are often located in areas that are losing population. Also, they tend to be in poor condition, and it may be hard to convert them to other purposes, Mr. Eichel said.

The study found examples of repurposing, however. In Milwaukee, a former middle school was bought last year for $600,000 to be converted into senior housing. In Chicago, several closed schools have been converted to charter schools.

Impact on Learning

In examining the academic performance of students in schools slated to be closed, the report focused on a study by the Consortium on Chicago School Research that looked at students whose schools were closed between 2001 and 2006. That study found that student performance fell at schools that were slated to be shut down and remained low for the rest of the school year. A year later, though, the academic performance of those displaced students had rebounded to preclosure levels.

The Pew report also cites a study led by researchers from the RAND Corp. that examined achievement from students from closed schools in a “midsized urban district in the Northeast.” Though the district was not named, the paper noted that the district closed 22 schools in the 2005-06 school year, which corresponds with Pittsburgh’s experience.

That paper said students in the district whose schools were closed did see a drop in their reading and math scores, but researchers found the effect could be mitigated or eliminated if the students were moved to schools that were higher-performing than the ones they left behind.

The Pew report offers several tools that districts can use to reduce the pain of closing schools. For example, it suggests that outside experts can bring a level of objectivity to the proceedings. Seeking community support early is also essential, the report notes.

It says that the 45,000-student District of Columbia school system committed a misstep by moving too quickly to close schools in the face of a 30 percent decline in enrollment. Under the leadership of then-Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, the school system announced that closures were coming in September 2007, and the final vote to close 23 schools came, after much controversy, four months later.

Mary Filardo, the executive director of the Washington-based 21st Century School Fund, studies school facilities issues and agrees that the system in Washington moved too quickly to shut down schools. Too many school districts distrust the public when it comes to closure decisions, she said.

Taking It to the Public

“The reason you involve the community is not to make [closings] palatable,” she said. “The reason you involve the community is because you want to make better decisions.”

She added that people whose children attend school in such urban areas often “are working-class or low-income. They know about making tough decisions and struggling” and can understand the necessity for some closings.

As District of Columbia school officials learned, making a misstep in school closings can cause political fallout. The community uproar over the closings in Washington was one of the ingredients that led last year to the primary-election defeat of then-Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, who had selected Ms. Rhee, and to the chancellor’s departure.

And after community members in Chicago protested that school- closure decisions were being made in secret, the Illinois legislature passed a law in August that governs how that 409,000-student system can make facilities decisions.

“The political fallout is from not having a trusting relationship with your public,” Ms. Filardo said.

Being Transparent

But involving the public can be a delicate balancing act, said Nancy R. Kodman, the executive director for academic and operations integration for Pittsburgh schools. Just introducing the problem to the community, she said, leads to people saying, “You don’t have any solutions? You don’t have any ideas?” But a full plan is criticized for being drawn up in secret.

“You lessen that by being as transparent as you can,” Ms. Kodman said.

When Pittsburgh closed more than 20 schools, she said, the district talked with the public about what it was hoping to achieve. Academic improvement was put forward as the top goal, and to eliminate some political horse-trading, the closures were considered as a group, in a single up-or-down vote by the school board.

While many urban districts are struggling with how to handle excess space, Ms. Filardo noted that Seattle is dealing with overcrowded classrooms, thanks to unexpected population growth. The Seattle Times reported in October that in one school, a 4th grade class is meeting in a hallway, and many classes are meeting in portables. An infusion of about 1,500 more students than expected is prompting the district to reopen some schools that it had closed, over community objection, in the past few years.

NO! He was only trying to express his "Constitutional Right to Freedom of Speech."

A Police Department DUI check point near where this horrible accident happened MIGHT have saved this girl's young promising life. The budding life and dreams of an innocent crushed by a few minutes of selfish, self-center behavior (drunk at twice the legal limit) in getting behind the wheel and stoked by a life time of apathy towards the suffering of others (Type II Sociopath.) Victoria Baca and her philanthropic organ, the"United Dem.s of MPA" as in "Dems dat get United to Support Dems dat pay Dems." must be happy? Austin Farley  faces a probable life sentence and Ashton Sweet was killed before she was old enough to drive however, Farley wasn't deprived of his 'right to express his freedom of speech.' This of course is the now infamous statement by Victoria Baca about her behavior, when arrested for physically interfering with a Riverside County Sheriff carrying out his duty at a check point and endangering the safety of the officer, the driver and everyone else in the area.  


Thanks again Vickie, you make  those tricky, obscure and even literal applications of constitutional law bow in the presence of your scathing repartee' regardless. Not to mention your singular tenacity with light poles - inspiring!. Of course it is the light from your light pole that guides us through the darkness of "the man's" petty rules into the promised land! The Promise: every drunk driver is revered like a conquering hero and every developer/Israeli Ex-patriate is graciously liberal with the cash he slips into the hand of the truly loyal  and NO illegal immigrant or drunk has to ever again live in fear of the surprise DUI check point. 

Viva La Raza!

Driver charged with DUI, murder in death 

of Irvine teen Ashton Sweet

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Austin Farley, 26, was charged with one felony count each of murder and driving under the influence in the crash that killed 14-year-old Ashton Sweet. (KABC Photo)

TAGS:

dui, car crash, orange county news

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  By Elex Michaelson and Jovana Lara

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- An Orange County man has been charged with DUI and murder for a collision that resulted in the death of Irvine teenager Ashton Sweet.

Police say 26-year-old Austin Farley's blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit when he crashed into the car Ashton Sweet was riding in Sunday morning.

Farley appeared in court to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon. He pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and DUI charges. A pre-trial hearing was scheduled for June 24 at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach. If convicted, Farley faces a maximum sentence of 20 years to life in state prison.

According to Orange County court records, Farley has a long criminal record.

• In 2009 Farley pleaded guilty to driving under the influence, battery on a peace officer, driving on a suspended license, and vandalism over $400.

• In 2008 he pleaded guilty to battery and damaging a monitoring device.

• In 2005 he pleaded guilty for refusing to take a chemical test for drugs or alcohol.

Farley now sits in jail and is held on $1 million bail. Irvine police say his vehicle struck a Mercedes-Benz carrying five passengers, including Sweet.

Sweet sustained an irreversible brain injury from the crash. She was being kept on life support so her organs could be donated. She was declared deceased Tuesday afternoon.

On Tuesday, nearly all of Sweet's classmates at Northwood High School wore white to celebrate her life. The memorial at the crash site is also growing.

"I think it's really hard for everyone," said junior Ashley Yonamine. "I hope that her family is doing all right and her friends remember all the joy that she brought and not all the sadness that comes with her death."

"Really nice kid," said Northwood High Principal Leslie Roach. "Very sweet, well liked. I think she'll certainly be missed."

Another passenger in the crash, 15-year-old Krista Merassa, remains in critical condition. Irvine police say her condition is improving and her injuries are not life-threatening.