DULUTH SCHOOL BOARD

Some day in the not-so-distant future, Duluth could become a city of two, not three, high schools.

At a long-range planning meeting Tuesday night, five Duluth School Board members asked Superintendent Julio Almanza to study the cost of closing a high school.

Almanza said he will report back with information about the financial and educational implications of a two-high-school system by October.

Board members looked into the future and saw fewer students and a shrinking budget ahead. They're already moving forward on a timeline to close Grant Elementary Magnet School, Chester Park Elementary Lab School or both in fall 2003.

Long-term projections show district enrollment dropping by 1,100 students in the next five years and by more than 2,100 students by the 2011-12 school year. That means a diminishing school budget because the state uses enrollment to determine how much money a school district gets.

Although Business Services Director Greg Hein doesn't have a number for the 2003-04 budget deficit, he's certain there will be one.

"I can guarantee you that there will be a deficit," Hein said.

That's because of less state revenue, employee raises still being negotiated and rising medical insurance costs. The trend of fewer students, which has been eating into the district's budget for years, will continue.

"You're eventually going to have to choose between programs and buildings," Almanza told the board.

Five board members -- Chairman Mike Akervik, Mary Cameron, Garry Krause, Robert Mars and Harry Welty -- asked for the high school figures after seeing enrollment projections.

"We keep taking all the kids in the lower grades and pushing them up to keep the buildings full," Welty said.

The district's numbers showed that if sixth-graders go to elementary schools instead of middle schools, high school enrollment in grades 10 through 12 would drop fast enough to eliminate one high school by the 2003-04 school year.

If sixth-graders stay in the middle schools, elementary enrollment would drop faster. High school enrollment in grades nine through 12 would fall more slowly, delaying the need to eliminate one high school until the 2011-12 school year.

Welty wanted information about turning Central High School into a junior high school and converting Woodland Middle School to an elementary school.

Cameron asked for information about turning East High School into a middle school.

"I'm amazed we're sitting in this room shutting down high schools by name," board member Laura Condon said.

"We're not talking about closing anything," Cameron said. "It is a planning committee meeting, and the public has a right to know what we're planning."

Condon asked for a commitment to the current middle school curriculum for grades six through eight.

She also said the architectural firm selected for the Lester Park and Rockridge school consolidation needs to know whether the combined school will be K-5 as proposed. The board is expected to vote on the architect Tuesday.