By David Fleet

Editor

On Wednesday night about 100 people gathered at the Brandon High School Performing Arts Center for a community forum regarding reconfiguration of buildings in the Brandon School District.

The community forum was scheduled following a Jan. 16 school board meeting in which a proposal to shutter the Harvey Swanson Elementary complex was made. If the building closes, it will join Belle Ann Elementary as schools no longer used by the district.

A second proposal was suggested at the forum that would close Brandon Fletcher Intermediate School rather than Harvey Swanson.

Superintendent Matt Outlaw and School Board President Kevin McClellan emphasized the second proposal came after parent and community feedback.

“One of the two buildings in this proposal would have to go,” said Outlaw. “The have similar capacity and they both have room to grow. We will continue to investigate this proposal.”

HT Burt, which is adjacent to Harvey Swanson and has been largely vacant since Oakwood Elementary opened, would see its final demise in the originally suggested reconfiguration. In June 2013, the district closed Belle Ann Elementary. With the growing number of closed buildings, the board will hear a presentation at their February meeting from Plante & Moran’s real estate division that deals in selling school properties.

“Right now we are just over 50 percent capacity,” said Matt Outlaw, district superintendent. “The district cannot afford to waste precious resources by being inefficient; we are losing resources we need for the classroom.

Enrollment losses over the last 11 years include a loss of 30 percent of our population in Brandon Township. There are 37 percent less young people in Brandon Township.”

“The bright side of this is the decline is coming to an end,” he continued. “As a district we are starting to stabilize.”

In addition to declining enrollment, the district is also facing a DEQ mandate to replace the wastewater treatment plant that serves the high school and middle school by November 2019. Last August, voters defeated a sinking fund tax levy, a proposed 2-mills for 2 years that would have raised about $2.2 million for the district to install a new wastewater treatment plant, as well as provide a new roof and dehumidification system for the aquatic center, and restroom renovations needed at the intermediate school and high school.

As a result of the enrollment decline and the ongoing infrastructure issues the district has had to make repeated cuts.

“We are trying to right size our district,”said Outlaw. “Right now we have capacity for 5,500 students and we have 2,730 students in our district. We have a lot of buildings for the number of students we have.”

The district would also have savings from cost avoidance, including replacing of the Harvey Swanson roof and parking lot. Harvey Swanson, built in the 1940s, is the oldest of the district buildings by more than three decades. The next oldest is Fletcher, which recently had a new wastewater treatment system installed.

Issues with playground equipment, the safety element due to the close proximity to M-15 and bathroom upgrades are considerations regarding using Fletcher as an elementary school. Conversely, the future of the old football and varsity baseball fields are a consideration in closing Harvey Swanson.

Brandon High School, which houses ninth through twelfth grades, would remain unchanged. Brandon Middle School would welcome sixth graders to join the seventh and eighth grades already at the building.

The high school has a capacity of 1,650 students and projected for 930 students next year,” said Outlaw. “Five years from now we are looking at about 800 high school students.”

The plan would net a projected annual savings of between $800,000 to $1.2 million, mostly through staffing cuts, including four teachers, an elementary principal, clerical positions, custodians, and parapros.

The next school board meeting is planned for 6:30 p.m., Feb. 20, at ITEC, 609 S. Ortonville Road, a decision will be made regarding closures and reconfiguations.