The West Ada school board on Monday night voted unanimously to decommission McMillan Elementary, a 54-year-old neighborhood school that has experienced a sharp decline in enrollment.
It’s one of the hardest decisions a school board can make, trustee David Binetti said after he made the motion to shut down McMillan at the end of the school year.
“The building will change, but everything else about the community experience that we feel and what makes the education for the students — I have every confidence will continue, and in some cases will grow,” Binetti said.
The math, he said, makes it clear that the building needs to be decommissioned:
- Enrollment has fallen by 62% since 2014.
- It was built to hold 475 students but just 171 attend today, meaning it is at 36% capacity.
- The district projected enrollment would drop to 121 by 2031, if left open.
- The building needs an estimated $5.4 million in repairs and updates within 10 years.
- Some grade levels at the school have one class.
Trustee Meghan Brown said small is good when intentional, but it can lead to low morale. She said her kids used to attend a school that had a grade level with one class. The same cohort of kids were together year after year.
“There was only so much variety and separation that could be made within four walls,” Brown said.
Chair Lori Frasure said the school board is charged with using taxpayer dollars. She said the feeling of attachment to a school is real, but the small class sizes and a declining enrollment make decommissioning necessary.
“I know these kids are going to go to areas where they will be loved, and they will be welcome, and they will be helped,” Frasure said. “And those resources, as has been talked about, will be there.”
McMillan is a community school with a family resource center that provides a food pantry, computer assistance and support to help families find housing, employment and transportation.
David Reinhart, the district’s chief operating officer, said the district’s federal programs department will decide on another regional location for community school services.
“Those services would still be offered to the same families in need of it now, and would likely be very close to the school that they attend in the future,” Reinhart said at a meeting last month.
Parent feels “devastated”
The district conducted two community input meetings in September and heard public comment at a school board meeting in October. Nineteen parents, students and community members spoke, all in opposition. A petition organized by one of those parents has gathered 639 signatures. Four community members spoke on Monday, including Jessica Ni, who has a kindergarten student at McMillan.
“I’m pretty devastated,” Ni told EdNews after the vote. “Just more distrust in the district.”
Her family, including a young daughter who is not in school, has lived near McMillan for eight years. Her kids play at the school’s playground.
“We’ve always said, ‘Oh, that’s the school we will go to,'” Ni said.
District leaders presented information on open enrollment, meaning families can apply to attend any school in the district if there is space. But Ni isn’t sure she wants to stay in West Ada.
“To be honest, I was considering just moving districts at this point,” she said.
Where will students go?
Miranda Carson, West Ada director of planning and transportation, said several nearby schools have ample space for McMillan students. Their teachers will get first priority for open positions at those receiving schools. She said the district offers special education and multilingual learning at all of them.
Of the 171 students at McMillan, 104 are in grades K-4 and would be impacted by the decommissioning. She said this is a community that loves choice, and those 104 students can chose any school.
“And so the question: Where will students go?” Carson said. “Anywhere they want where there’s seats available. And we know there are seats available at any of these grade schools.”
In response to a question about keeping groups of friends together, Superintendent Derek Bub said he hesitates to make any guarantees to parents.
“I think it’s a priority to keep our students together,” Bub said. “It’s always a priority to keep our students together.”
No plans for building
In the coming months, the district will work out new school boundaries and make plans for what to do with the McMillan building.
District spokesperson Michelle Edmonds said West Ada could consider selling or leasing the property. Staff will make a “detailed proposal,” she said.
But for students and families, the district will focus on transitioning them to new schools.
“We want them to grow with excitement about what is coming next,” Edmonds said. “Because as we’ve heard tonight, every West Ada school is a place you want to be.”
