BUTLER TWP — The majority of staff and parents in the Butler School District are satisfied with the outcome of the school consolidation effort this past year.

“There are obvious areas of concern that need to be addressed, but overall, the survey results, I thought, reinforced the changes that have taken place,” Superintendent Dale Lumley said.

The district surveyed staff, parents and community members in March.

The school board’s After-Action Review Committee on Tuesday discussed the impacts of the consolidation.

The consolidation closed five elementary schools: Broad Street, Center Avenue, Clearfield, Meridian and Oakland. Center Avenue was repurposed as an emotional support and alternative education school.

Also, grades were rearranged so Butler Middle School houses fifth and sixth grade, the intermediate high school has grades seven to nine, and the senior high school has 10th to 12th grade.

Lumley said, “Building usage and population increases are obvious outcomes of consolidation. Despite what some have voiced, the current capacities at the buildings are still acceptable while allowing for growth.

“Of course, when you add 500 students to a secondary building or 100 students to an elementary building, the impact is noticeable, but those numbers are not unreasonable or unmanageable. I see nothing in the capacities, enrollment trends or data reports that indicate the need to hold on to any of the closed buildings or to adjust any enrollment areas at this time.”

At the elementary level, the number of classes with too many students is 5 percent, according to Mary Wolf, assistant superintendent of elementary education.

Before the consolidation, 19 percent of classrooms exceeded the targets of 20 students in kindergarten to third grade classes and 25 students in fourth to sixth grade classes.

At the secondary level, there is some perceived anxiety about capacity at the high school, according to Brian Slamecka, assistant superintendent of secondary education. However, 65 percent of classes at the high school are within a 21 to 28 student range. At the intermediate high school, the majority of classes have 16 to 24 students.

The target class size at the secondary level is 27 students.

From a financial standpoint, the district saved $2.8 million from the consolidation, taking into account the cost of starting up the Center Avenue Community School and doing tax appraisals on the closed buildings, according to Deborah Brandstetter, director of business services.

Of that $2.8 million total, $850,000 was used to buy new technology for the district, and the remaining was used to reduce the budget deficit for the 2015-16 school year, she said.

Despite the positive impacts of the consolidation, the committee also discussed the areas where the district needs to improve.

Wolf highlighted that parents still are largely dissatisfied with the breakfast and lunch programs and the transportation. Staff also is unhappy with the lack of professional development opportunities and the consistency of technology across schools, Slamecka said.

In the elementary school classrooms, computers have not been replaced for more than seven to 10 years, according to Bill Raley, director of technology. Replacing the elementary technology was scheduled to be in 2016-17 as part of a two-year technology upgrade, but the $1.3 million technology upgrade is facing scrutiny as the school board works on balancing a $6.9 million deficit for next school year.

Fixing some of the concerns may require spending more money as board member Al Vavro pointed out.

“It is important to note that some of these concerns require additional expenditures,” he said.

Now, the district is looking at ways to improve bus routes for next year, according to Debby Croft, supervisor of transportation. She said more than half of the middle school bus routes take longer than 50 minutes. However, the middle and high school buses must cover the district’s entire 150 square miles, she said.

Other issues that were realized by the consolidation were decreased parent involvement, less available space for future programs such as full-day kindergarten, increased transportation times and increased discipline problems on the buses, according to board President Nina Teff.

For Teff, other areas of improvement are the staff working together specifically at the high school, job satisfaction specifically at the high school and Center Township, capacity at the high school and cost savings, she said.

Board member Bill Halle said the board needs to improve how well it connects with both the community and the staff.

“We definitely have to stop looking at things the same way and doing things the same way if we expect to have different results,” he said. “We have a district that has a $7 million deficit, and honestly, I’m very frustrated and I’ve communicated this probably many different times ...”

For that reason, Halle said the district needs to improve its planning, both financially and academically, to improve areas of concern and to prevent the district from reaching another deficit point where selling the closed schools becomes an urgent matter.

Board members still don’t have a consensus about selling the remaining closed schools.

Although Meridian was sold to Michael Wright of 70E Solutions for $425,000 in March, the board rejected attempts in March to sell Oakland and Broad Street to interested buyers, Monty Edgars of Woodbine Oaks for $363,600 and J.M. Beatty Furniture for $400,000, respectively.

The district has an offer from CNC Malt for Clearfield for $235,000 and from Edgar for Oakland.

When the board previously rejected the offer from J.M. Beatty Furniture, the offer was to be considered expired. However, discussion regarding selling to J.M. Beatty continued Tuesday afternoon.

Vavro said, “The data factually indicates that the closure of the four buildings was both educationally and fiscally appropriate and did not have a detrimental effect.

“Selling the four buildings will, in my opinion, relieve some of the district’s financial burden and allow monies to be channelled into educational needs instead of unnecessary buildings.”

Board member Leland Clark said, “The biggest challenge of all I think we have is balancing the budget. ... There are countless things that we would like to do for our students and employees, but all of it is completely meaningless if we go bankrupt ...

“Regarding the three remaining closed school buildings, I recommend that we sell Clearfield to CNC Malt and that we sell Broad Street to J.M. Beatty (Furniture).”

Clark also considered leasing Oakland as a way to keep one building to see if it will be needed later.

But one building that sells for a couple thousand may not be worth it if a new building will cost millions to construct later, according to Teff and community member Chris Nebel, who works in the district’s area.

Nebel said. “We sell those buildings, we’re going to get less than $1 million for all those buildings, and we’re giving away so much more by giving away those buildings. And then we’re going to be building a $35 million building like the other school districts.”

For board member Jennifer Cummings, who is the review committee’s chairwoman, overcrowding may warrant holding on to at least one building.

“To me, overcrowding is a key concern,” she said. “If you look at the survey results and read through the data, there are clearly issues at Center Township, the senior high school and probably Summit, and I feel like McQuistion is pretty full but very well organized.”

Teff told the committee that keeping one of the buildings might be an important back up plan and said selling all three remaining buildings immediately is “too short-sighted.”

More discussion on recommendations to sell the buildings will follow at meetings of the full board and may be included on the agenda for the meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Harriger Educational Services Center, 110 Campus Lane.