BUTLER TWP — A Butler parent Monday night talked to the Butler School Board and district administrators for about 45 minutes about her uneasiness with the district's proposed consolidation plan.

Nina Teff, who is with Butler Residents for Quality Schools, talked during the board's committee meeting that precedes its agenda-setting meeting.

This was the first time a parent has been allowed to talk about the consolidation plan outside a public to be heard time at a regular board meeting. Those comments are limited to five minutes.

Teff introduced herself as an experienced engineer who isn't caught up in the emotion of the consolidation plan — as some have claimed — but who is looking carefully at calculations and consequence.

“I'm not convinced this is the right course of action for the students or the Butler community as a whole,” Teff said.

Butler's proposed consolidation plan would close five elementary schools and reconfigure grades after this school year ends. Broad Street, Center Avenue, Clearfield, Meridian and Oakland elementary schools would close if board members approve it in May.

Remaining elementary schools would become kindergarten through fourth grade buildings, and fifth and sixth graders would attend a middle school at the current junior high downtown.

The plan is estimated to save $3.5 million.

Teff said Butler schools would have more students than other schools of a similar size and configuration in the region.

For instance, the Seneca Valley School District has four primary schools that have kindergarten through fourth grade, two fifth and sixth grade middle schools, and a school each for seventh and eighth grades, ninth and 10th grades and 11th and 12th grades.

The middle schools at Seneca Valley have 475 and 675 students, while the middle school Butler officials have proposed would have nearly 1,100 students.

“The thing that stands out to me is that the fifth and sixth (grade) school, it's 60 percent to 130 percent more populated than Seneca Valley,” Teff said.

The other secondary schools at Butler would also be much larger than at Seneca Valley.

She also said there are still several unknown variables in the proposed plan, regarding costs to renovate, to close buildings and transition processes.

She ended her presentation by playing an audio recording of Butler City Councilman Bill May at a Feb. 26 council meeting talking about the consolidation, referring to a “fear mongering” parents group that claims Butler is an unsafe place to live.

May had said a board member had talked to him about the pressure board members were getting to close the junior high school in downtown Butler.

“Have you heard me mention the socioeconomic status of any school or any person? Have you heard me mention race of any students or their parents?” Teff said.

Laura Wick, a Butler City parent, among others, last week released prepared statements about May's comments:

“In the past months I have been involved with the group Butler Residents for Quality Schools. Not once in my many interactions with this group have I heard one of them say that they do not want the children that live in the city at their schools. Instead, they have graciously taken the time to understand the importance of our city schools to our city neighborhoods,” Wick said.

“ ... Mr. May speaks of character assassination on our city — a city I have come to love. I would ask that he be careful not to assassinate the character of residents outside of the City of Butler.”

Board members were quick to respond to Teff's presentation.

Don Pringle said he saw flaws in her presentation, and that board members have a tough job.

“If you were sitting in my chair, and maybe someday you will. If you're there, and you're getting called a bum, and your children are at school … We have to make the tough decisions,” he said. “You can analyze and analyze and analyze, but you have to make a decision.”

Board member Jim Keffalas described the presentation as “fault finding”, while Al Vavro, vice president of the board, said the district is long overdue to update the district's school configuration.

“We're kind of in the dark ages with K to six,” Vavro said.

Also, at the request of several board members, a preliminary special meeting has been scheduled at 6 p.m. April 8 to further discuss the consolidation process.