Back-to-back public forums Tuesday night suggested that the Butler School District doesn't have the money for what it wants and needs, and its top administrator is floating ridding the district of its 101-year-old middle school building as a means to find the cash.

At Butler Intermediate High School Tuesday night Superintendent Brian White asked members of the community, including both district staff and parents, to weigh in on five options for a potential second round of building consolidation. One of White's options keeps things as they are, but the other four are various strategies for closing down Butler Middle School. The reason why is simple.

“It has the most expensive price tag,” White said. “Now, it's not going to fall over next year or anything like that.”

But it would need about $20 million of work in the next five-to-six years to keep it viable, he said. Shuttering the building would save on more than just those repair costs too, he argues. White sees potential savings in transportation and staffing as well.

This may all sound familiar to parents of children who have been in the district for a few years. Butler closed several elementary schools in its 2015 consolidation.

Participants Tuesday were asked to give feedback on each scenario using color-coded sticky notes.

One note left by a faculty or staff member read bluntly: “Please leave us be. -B. M. S.” Another said “Our scores are increasing.”

The status quo option and one other option appeared to garner the most positive sticky notes. That other option would group kindergarten through fifth grade in eight elementary schools, children grades sixth through eight in what is now the Intermediate High School and ninth through twelfth graders in the Senior High School building, while shuttering the middle school building.Advocates of that plan, such as Amanda and Horace King, said the plan mirrors traditional divisions nationwide. The Kings have a daughter in third grade.

“There's a difference in maturity levels,” Horace said. “This keeps a balance between the middle school and high school.”

Both wondered why the middle school was allowed to degrade until it required such a hefty sum in repairs.

“Why wasn't this caught?” Amanda asked.

Parents like Kris Paserba, of Meridian, had an answer: it was.

“A lot of us had been involved in proposals just like these,” Paserba said. “Now, just a couple years later and we're not any better financially.”