BUTLER TWP — Butler School District officials are beginning to lay out transition plans in anticipation of a major building consolidation that could take effect at the end of the school year.

Essentially, they’re making plans for the plan.

Dale Lumley, superintendent, said a transition team group of employees from central and building administration, transportation, special education, food service and maintenance, have been meeting weekly since last month, when board members took a preliminary vote on a consolidation plan to close five elementary schools.

“Now that the board has a plan, we can begin to look at the details of that plan,” he said.

Some parents and residents criticized the administration for not having all of the transition details set when three plans were being considered, but Lumley said that would have been complicated.

“To get into that level of specificity (with three plans) would have been very, very difficult,” he said.

The school board last month voted 6-3 for a plan that would close Broad Street, Center Avenue, Clearfield, Meridian and Oakland elementary schools.

If approved in May by the board, the remaining elementary schools would change from a kindergarten through sixth grade format to a kindergarten through fourth grade configuration. That would leave fifth and sixth graders to attend the current junior high building.

In addition, seventh through ninth graders would attend the intermediate high school and 10th through 12th graders would attend the high school.

Now the transition team is looking at a variety of changes that would be made with consolidation.

Those include these issues: Packing and moving teacher materials and furniture, considering curriculum changes, making teacher assignments, redistricting student districts, making transportation changes, creating a special education building at Center Avenue Elementary for students who now attend Clarence Brown, planning for the new class reconfigurations, and dealing with junior high parking and class bell times.

Lumley said he would like “to hit the ground running” if a consolidation plan is adopted in May.

Jon Thomas of Thomas and Williamson Project Management, who recommended a number of plans for the consolidation project, said selling multiple elementary school buildings would not be easy.

He is pessimistic about the building sales, but estimated the five elementary schools to be closed have a combined worth of $3.3 million. He considered that figure a middle of the road price “between the optimum sale and the minimum.”

Location is a factor in sales potential.

“The city schools have an advantage because there’s more need for facilities of that type in the city, and you can use them for some type of community support, whether it’s the aged or the young,” Thomas said.

On the other hand, suburban and rural schools might be more valuable for their land.

“If it’s got some key location, or it’s on the bus line, or it’s in a trendy area,” it’s a better sell, he said.