Allison to close, reopen in 2010 as Intergenerational School

Yesterday, The NCS Board of Education voted 3-2 to close Allison Elementary this coming school under a restructuring plan that save the school district approximately $315,156 by cutting 5.4 teaching positions as well as a custodian and a health aide. Allison’s 240 K-6 students will attend either Sharpsburg or Williams elementaries. Allison will then reopen in 2010 as an Intergenerational School for K-2 students in conjunction with Xavier University.

Board members Scott Faulkner and Sarah Horsley voted against the restructuring measure. Ms. Horsely objected on the grounds she “personally does not feel that the cost savings are significant enough to warrant closing a school in this short time period.” Mr. Faulkner questioned why busing Allison students wasn’t on the agenda, and said the cost of $71,000 for one bus route, “to me, is worth it if kids get safely from one school to another…I can’t seeing us griping over $71,200 a bus and making these kids walk across a state route and across busy intersections.” Board President Carolyn Atwood disagreed and said, Board President Carolyn Atwood “It is a cost savings if we don’t do it, but that’s not the only reason why I’m saying that we can’t do it. If we do it for one, we have to do it for all.”

After Norwood resident Jen Seurkamp told the BOE she didn’t think they did enough research on alternatives and were rushing the decision, member Cherie Scott-Geraci responded, “We feel like we have dug deep and tried to pull in every single thing that we can do to save this district from financial ruin … We’ve already received letters from the state that say if we do not propose how we’re going to solve our financial problems, they’ll come in and they’ll decide it for us.”