BUTLER TWP — The Butler School Board’s consolidation review committee has identified some of the measures that should be investigated during its review.

The seven-person committee is led by Jennifer Cummings, chairman, and Al Vavro, vice chairman, with board members Suzie Bradrick, Leland Clark, Neil Convery, Bill Halle and Nina Teff, board president.

Board members John Conrad and David Korn did not express interest in being on the committee, according to Teff.

“I would have liked to have gotten more accomplished, but every meeting is like that,” said Cummings after the first meeting of the panel on Wednesday afternoon. Regardless, Cummings said she is pleased with the meeting and will be compiling a report on it.

The specific goals of the consolidation plan were discussed as a way to identify what the committee should look at to measure possible successes or failings.

The consolidation took place in June, closing five of the 11 elementary schools. Center Avenue, which was closed, reopened as an alternative and special needs school. The other four schools, Broad Street, Meridian, Oakland and Clearfield, remain closed.

For Superintendent Dale Lumley, budget savings and more efficient use of tax dollars was the major goal of the consolidation.

“It comes down to cost. That had to be one of the objectives,” he said. “We wanted to reduce staffing if possible but use the staff we have more efficiently.”

Lumley stressed that staffing cuts were considered secondary to general cost savings, such as those associated with travel expenses between the elementary schools. Specialized instructors often traveled among the schools, providing for less instructional time and higher travel costs.

Other reasons for the consolidation included improving consistency of the education among the primary schools, which included leveling the technology available to students. Halle cited that some buildings had 12-year-old computers while other buildings had newer ones.

Having more staff working together and reinstating previously cut programs, such as primary school computer classes, also were considerations in the decision, according to Vavro.

Convery stated the goal was simply a two-fold plan to give “the best educational services” at the lowest taxpayer cost.

“We could provide better education and make sure the tax dollars don’t go toward the brick and mortar of school buildings and the upkeep of those,” he said.

To measure the success of these objectives, the committee plans to look at class size, technology changes, transportation data and discipline and attendance data, Lumley said.

However, the full spectrum of what data the committee will collect was not fully identified on Wednesday, Cummings said.

Lumley stressed to the committee that using test performance scores should not be used in the review since those would be a better measure of long-term success.

Halle questioned if the smaller class sizes actually showed results, asking how the increase in student achievement and involvement would even be measured if test scores were not used.

Student achievement measures were not specifically decided on during the meeting.

Another concern the committee discussed was the difficulty of the transition for some children, which was an issue among parents, Clark said.

The district also hopes to separate the decline in student enrollment between those who simply moved away and those who opted to leave the district because of the consolidation, a task the committee acknowledges may be hard to do.

Cummings said she hopes to use an independent market research company to do a survey of taxpayers and parents, but the cost of that is not yet known.

While the district may concurrently move forward with the sales of the closed schools and public meetings on those matters, the committee does not want to send a mixed message to buyers and parents.

“I don’t see us opening another school,” Halle said, not wanting to incite more public anxiety, or even hope, prematurely.

Cummings added the likelihood of the review showing that one of the buildings is still needed is low, but she does not want to completely overlook the possibility.

The committee’s next meeting will be at 4:30 p.m. Dec. 22 at the Harriger Educational Services Center, 110 Campus Lane.