Butler School Board members on Monday voted for a school consolidation plan that could close five elementary schools, but that vote marks only the beginning of the process.

The district still has more meetings planned to discuss the proposal, and school officials now have to begin filling out the details of how the plan will work.

The board is expected to take a final vote on the plan in May.

Under the plan, which is estimated to save the district $3.5 million a year, Broad Street, Center Avenue, Clearfield, Meridian and Oakland would close. The remaining six elementary schools would be reconfigured to house students from kindergarten through fourth grade.

Fifth- and sixth-grade students would be sent to the current junior high school, seventh- through ninth-grade students would attend the intermediate high school, and 10th through 12th grades would got to the senior high school.

“We’re going to be digging into the specifics now with an internal transition team to look at each aspect of it and to get more specific as we move forward,” said Dale Lumley, superintendent, “because if the board makes that decision in May, we have to be ready to go with implementing that plan.”

Those specifics will address such issues as teachers and students moving to other schools, moving materials and equipment from building to building, and bus route changes.

A public hearing at 6 p.m. Feb. 4 at the high school auditorium will give the public a chance to talk about the proposal. Jon Thomas with Thomas and Williamson Project Management, the consulting firm that recommended the plan, also will review the plan at that meeting.

That hearing is required under state law which mandates a hearing at least 90 days before a school board takes a final vote on a school closing.

Setting the hearing in February means the board can take a final vote in May.

Lumley also plans to have meetings at each of the five schools that could be closing to discuss concerns in a smaller, less formal setting. Dates for those meetings have not yet been set.

Two educational and community leaders have expressed satisfaction with the preliminary plan.

Tom DeGeorge, president of the Butler Education Association, the district’s teacher union, indicated his support for it.

“We’ll be able to work together better than we had before, and I think over the next couple of years the district will really be able to see the positives out of all of this,” he said.

“I understand the concerns and the frustration of the uncertainties, but I think the advantages will far outweigh that in the long run.”

He also wanted to clarify that teachers were given ample opportunity to express concerns about plans with principals and administrators without fear of retribution.

“We’ve always been able to provide our input and concerns for any of the consolidation issues,” DeGeorge said.

Bill May, a Butler City councilman and a member of the district’s community advisory committee, said he is pleased that the district revised plans and will keep a city elementary school open.

“I applaud the school district for the decision to keep Emily Brittain and the junior high open,” he said. “I’m glad that it took the city’s concerns into consideration. I think it’s a very fair decision.”

He said keeping some of the schools open in the city is vital for Butler’s revitalization efforts and the quality of neighborhoods.

But Kris Paserba with the Butler Residents for Quality Schools group said he’s not sure what that group’s next steps are. Its members advocate a kindergarten through sixth grade configuration and had been urging the administration to slow down the consolidation process.

“Everything, I think, has happened so fast,” he said.

Regarding the consolidation, he said, “They said it’s been discussed for the past few years, but a lot of that utilization data has only been communicated to the board and the public in the past three months.

He pointed out that it was only “in October a lot of us heard that the K to 6 configuration that a lot of us trust, a lot of us take comfort in, might be going away.”

He said many parents would be put at ease with the plan if school board members and administrators would sit down with parents to explain their perspective on why the change is beneficial.

“I don’t think anyone wants to see divisiveness in the community. And there’s an easy way to calm everybody down: And that’s just by talking,” Paserba said.

David Korn, president of the school board, said he’s confident in the administration and that the plan is the right choice for the district.

“We’re still in the infancy of our decision here. There’s a lot involved. They started working on this Tuesday morning (after the Monday vote),” Korn said.

“I would like to go back 20 years and do this at a slower pace, but it’s long overdue. “I’m not going to let this school crumble around me while I’m on this board.”