The Mid-Del board voted Feb. 28 to explore selling Sooner-Rose Elementary School.

Even though Mid-Del’s Board of Education voted to sell two elementary schools Feb. 28, several questions tied to the controversial move remain unanswered.

Board members decided last week to sell Sooner-Rose Elementary, Traub Elementary and the district’s enrollment center in an attempt to lessen the financial shortfall administrators are expecting for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. In January, school officials said publicly they expected a $10 million gap because of reduced state aid, increased health insurance premiums and the elimination of federal stimulus money, which had been used the last two years to offset budget deficits.

At this point, district spokeswoman Stacey Boyer said, school officials are waiting on the bids to determine the next course of action.

“It could be an outright sale or it could be a purchase-lease option for $1 a year for two or three years.

The students might not have to leave those schools for a couple of years. There are so many variables right now we won’t know which direction this is going until the April 11 (school) board meeting,” she said. “On the other hand, the board may not like any of the bids. It may not be something the district is even interested in.”

Traub Elementary School will be on the selling block.

The bids will be opened April 1 in a public meeting at the Mid-Del Board of Education. Superintendent Bill Scoggan and his administrative team will make a final recommendation to the school board at the April 11 meeting.

The earliest Sooner-Rose and Traub students would move to another school would be next fall, Boyer said. Boyer was quick to add that teachers at Sooner-Rose and Traub would follow those same group of students to their new schools.

The schools to which Sooner Rose and Traub students would eventually move has not been determined.

“We want to keep the students as close to their neighborhood schools as possible,” Boyer said, adding that class sizes should remain the same once the transition is made.

MONEY MATTER

While some district patrons expressed displeasure about the sale of the schools at the Feb. 28 meeting, the decision boiled down to finances only, especially since the defeat of a proposed $190.9 million bond issue in December 2010. If the bond issue had passed, the district would have closed four elementary schools and two middle schools while building four new elementary schools. In January, the school board decided to pursue a similar bond issue later this year.

“Regardless of what will happen, we have to reduce our expenses,” Boyer said. “The board has made the decision to get rid of buildings instead of people.”

Citing a worst-case scenario earlier this year, Scoggan said teacher layoffs were imminent if the district could not find ways to cut expenses while maintaining its academic integrity.

Sooner-Rose and Traub were selected as the two buildings to sell, primarily because of their age and marketability to potential buyers, Boyer said. Sooner-Rose is 71 years old and Traub was built 60 years ago. Sooner-Rose, located on 10 acres at S.E. 15th Street and Sooner Road, is considered a prime commercial corner and Traub Elementary is situated at Southeast 15th between Air Depot Road and Sooner Road, just north of Rose State College. Traub is situated on 13 acres.

Closing Sooner Rose and Traub will also save more than $200,000 a year in utility and maintenance costs, Boyer said.

Selling the two schools aren’t the only cost-cutting measures the Mid-Del district has employed. Last year, district officials authorized a freeze on all school and department budgets.

Additionally, a hiring freeze was ordered “unless it was a critical role,” said Pam Deering, assistant superintendent of fiscal affairs.

This year, all school and department budgets were slashed 20 percent, while maintaining the hiring freeze, Deering said.

Enrollment at the two elementary schools has been static for the last 10 years, according to figures provided by the district. Sooner Rose has a current enrollment of 386 students and Traub has 379 pupils. During the 2001-02 school year, Sooner Rose’s enrollment was 394 and Traub’s was 374.

However, both schools had much higher enrollments during the 1980s when the district had a total student enrollment exceeding 20,000 students. The current district-wide enrollment is 14,590.

“There are some schools that have less than half the enrollment they used to have,” Boyer said.

tfarley@eastword.net