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Dav School Board Considers Closing Schools

Davenport School District
Monroe Elementary School in Davenport

As costs go up and enrollment falls, the Davenport school board is looking at a range of options, including closing some schools. The latest option would close Monroe Elementary and convert Smart Intermediate into an elementary building.

Superintendent Art Tate says in recent weeks the board has discussed the possibility of closing a high school, and various combinations of closing elementary schools and turning intermediate schools into elementaries.

"We are not getting enough money from our enrollment to afford the operations that we're doing right now. We've lost 1,000 students in the last ten years.  We're getting from the state increases of about one per cent when doing business at all costs you two, three, or four per cent."

Their goal is to stop going into the red, and develop what he calls "a responsible budget."

Doctor Tate says the board will continue discussing these options through the summer, but will have to make its final decisions by the end of September, that would take effect the following school year. 

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.