BUTLER TWP — An initial consolidation study shows there are about 7,300 students in buildings in that Butler School District that have a combined 12,000-plus student capacity.

Butler School Board members, district administrators and about 50 teachers, parents and staff heard those figures and others Wednesday evening at a meeting lead by Thomas and Williamson Program Management at the Butler High School auditorium.

The school board last year approved a 17-month consolidation study, and Wednesday night's meeting was a 12-month update on the study.

“I thought it was a very positive meeting,” said Dale Lumley, superintendent. “The truth of the matter is, are we using the facilities the best we can? Probably not.”

After going over population decline trends, transportation plans, spending rates and building capacity rates, Thomas and Williamson President Jon Thomas outlined five options for school board members to consider:

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[naviga:li]Keeping all buildings open with the same grade-level configurations.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]Closing one or more elementary schools while keeping the same configuration.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]Splitting grades kindergarten through third grades and fourth through sixth grades with multiple building closures, and keeping the same configuration in secondary schools.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]Splitting grades kindergarten through third grades and fourth through sixth grades, with the fourth through sixth graders going to the junior high school, moving seventh and eighth grades from the junior high to the intermediate high school and moving sophomores from the intermediate school to the high school.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]Splitting kindergarten through fourth grades and fifth and sixth grades, with fifth and sixth graders moving to the junior high school, seventh and eighth graders moving from the junior high to the intermediate high school, and moving tenth graders from the intermediate to the high school.[/naviga:li]

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Lumley said the school board would have to make an initial decision by January if any schools were to be under consideration to be closed.

Enrollment peaked in the district in September 1970 with 12,723 students. Ten years later in the 1979-80 school year, 10,384 students were enrolled. Another decade later in the 1990-91 school year, that number dipped to 8,300 students.

Numbers began to trend up again to 8,690 students in the 1994-95 school year, and projections in the mid 1990s showed gradually increasing enrollment.

Currently, there are 7,300 students in the district, and enrollment numbers are projected to continue a slight decline.

Further complicating matters are escalating costs.

Since 1993, wages have increased by 193 percent, benefits have increased by 325 percent, and a catch-all category called “other,” factoring things such as students leaving the district to go to special needs schools and to cyber schools, jumped by 378 percent.

When a student leaves the district to go to an alternative school, the district loses the funding per student, which is now more than $12,000, to go to the other educational institution.