BEDFORD – In a 5-2 vote on Thursday, members of the North Lawrence Community Schools board decided to suspend operations at Oolitic Middle School for the upcoming 2023-24 school year, moving all NLCS grade seven and eight students to Bedford Middle School.
Members voting in favor of the motion to suspend operations were Wendy Miller, Tracy Bailey, Adam Parsley, and Kirsten Collier. Voting in opposition were Barbara Miller and Scott King.
Interim superintendent James Halik recommended the board suspend middle school operations at the building for the year, using the next school year to gather data on potential uses for the space, with him suggesting that a committee spearheaded by new superintendent Kevin Yancey provide the board with a list of alternative uses no later than Feb. of 2024.
Halik also provided the board with financial data for what a fully staffed OMS, equal to BMS would cost NLCS.
According to Halk, should the facilities be treated equally with equal staffing, OMS would cost the corporation $1,862,542.79 for the upcoming school year, assuming an average cost per educator of $50,000, including benefits.
Should the district be able to transfer existing employees to OMS, they could save $605,522.91, with a total of $1,258,019.88.
At that figure, Halik said NLCS would need to attract 180 new seventh and eighth-grade students who do not currently attend NLCS schools to break even with it open and equal to BMS.
Even so, transferring employees to the facility would not be without challenges, as a survey recently conducted by NLCS with 228 staff responses found that around 61% of employees would not consider transferring to OMS to fill vacant positions, with the same percentage indicating that they would likely leave the district if forced to switch to the school.
Board members explained their votes on Thursday, with many in favor of suspending operations citing the uphill battle ahead for funding and staffing the school as a key reason.
“Consolidation is part of the situation. I feel like most of us here went to BNL and turned out pretty well. We’re good enough to be your board members. And so, consolidation hasn’t hurt us,” said Lambrecht, who was once forced to switch schools due to consolidation as an NLCS student.
“I understand this is a tough situation, but to do what’s right for the students is not to spend money to fund a building that we really can’t afford. I really just don’t think that’s the case.”
Wendy Miller, who voted previously as a member of the board to keep the school open, said her previous votes had been cast with good faith intentions of maintaining operations, but issues with the corporation’s prior leadership have now led to a point of no return for OMS.
“The two votes that I made before to keep it open were absolutely in good faith and if I had a time machine where we could go back to where it was recommended to close Oolitic when there were 179 students and we could redo that with different leadership, that to me is the only way to fix where we are,” said former Oolitic student Wendy Miller. “My vote to suspend operations there is in no way an endorsement of prior leadership’s treatment and what I saw as targeting of Oolitic Middle School, I want to be clear about that, just speaking for me. But, this is our start line and this is where we are. I don’t want to be here. I think there are many opportunities for that building, but I don’t want to jump to those when many people in this building are probably really hurt and disappointed. I’m one of them.”
Parsley, who is the parent of an Oolitic fifth grader and an eighth grader, who formerly attended OMS before transferring to BMS for this school year, said he voted to suspend operations because he felt, given the information provided available to the board, that it was the soundest decision.
“I’m voting the way I’m voting tonight because I believe we the board as responsible leaders have to make sound judgments based on the facts and the realities that we face currently. We must also take into account the future potential of our schools, always keeping in mind the well-being of our students and teachers,” he said.
Parsley said he feels the district will need time to properly address the issues at OMS, such as declining enrollment and short staffing.
“I think opening OMS by August would create a huge amount of uncertainty, churn, and stress on our already stressed system. I do not believe we can realistically recruit a school’s worth of teachers and staff in time for August, but that’s not a new thought. I stated that in January. I stated that at the NLEA PAC in October during the campaign, that I think this takes a considerable amount of time,” he said.
Collier, who also voted twice to keep OMS open last year, said suspending operations at the school was a last resort for her, but given the situation has become the only viable option at this time.
“I had hoped that we would be in a better situation now than we were then and we’re not, it’s worse. We had just kind of a mass exodus of staff and it is just unrealistic to believe we could have it staffed full of teachers and support staff and students,” she said.
Bailey, who voted previously to close seventh and eighth-grade operations at OMS, said his decision was made with the voices of NLCS staff in mind.
“I’ve always felt that when you’re elected, you’re saying ‘trust me that I’ll be able to take the information that you’re not going to be able to get, boil it down, and try to make the best decision that I can possibly make.’ The only way that this is possible is to listen to the people that we employ. Regardless of what you feel about Dr. Mungle, it wasn’t just Dr. Mungle. It was the principals, it was the counselors, it was the teachers all coming to us saying, ‘we can’t do this another year,'” he said. “So. I’m not a teacher, I’m not an educator but I can listen to people who are and understand what they’re going through and the challenges that they’re going through and take their recommendation.”
Explaining her vote in opposition to the motion, Barbara Miller said many have expressed to her that smaller schools are preferable to them and maintaining two middle schools would help NLCS to limit the size of the school’s classes.
“I think we need to look at them and do what’s best for them. Anybody you talk to, smaller schools is where that family atmosphere, when you walk into the building everybody knows them. Everybody knows their family. So, I think we really need to look at smaller schools, which would make BMS smaller, make it more manageable. But that’s why we’re here, for the kids,” she said.
King voted in favor of keeping OMS open, saying he felt the board had a responsibility to represent the entire community, as well as the best interest of the students. He said he felt the district having two middle schools would be a catalyst to increase enrollment, with closing only benefiting local charter schools.
“Any potential to increase our enrollment is much greater if we have two middle schools going forward. It puts us at a competitive advantage or position against the other schools in our county and our community. I don’t, like some in our county and some in our corporation I think, I don’t hate the charter schools, but I do hate we’re considering a decision that will strengthen the charter schools and weaken us,” King said.
