The superintendent of Butler schools proposed closing the middle school and reopening Broad Street Elementary as part of a realignment of the school system to account for shrinking enrollment in a physically large district.

Superintendent Brian White outlined four plans Monday night in the auditorium at the intermediate high school with more than 100 parents and school staff members in the audience. White's preferred path puts kindergarten through fourth grade at the district's seven elementary schools (including Broad Street), fifth through eighth grades at the intermediate school and ninth through 12th at the senior high school.

White explained his reasoning in a presentation and plans to distribute a report breaking down his plan. He'll start collecting feedback via an online survey soon.

White began by listing several obstacles the district needs to overcome.

The first is a familiar one for those who remember previous consolidation efforts in 2015: enrollment.

“Enrollment didn't decrease as we thought during the consolidation,” White said. “Enrollment decreased faster.”

Last week's graduating class was a little smaller than last year's he noted. The figure fluctuates, he said, but there's an elementary class moving up that's about 100 students smaller than today's.

Another obstacle prompted a look into reconsolidation: the downtown middle school building, which is over 100 years old. One route forward, White said, is to either renovate it or build a new one. The district doesn't have the money or debt situation to deal with either.

Without interest payments factored in, the district would borrow about $17.5 million to renovate or $40.5 million to build new. White also showed how a loan setup would look for building new — he said they'd be in over $70 million by the end of the debt payments.

Whatever the choice, the district won't act in the coming school year, White said. Rather, these changes would need to be made by 2022, when middle school analysis suggests the building may start causing a crisis.

Overcrowding at Center Township Elementary School served as another priority, which White theorizes could be alleviated by Broad Street reopening.

In White's preferred route forward, the first floor of the intermediate would serve grades five and six while seventh and eighth graders headed upstairs. The building has two front offices, he noted, and could function similarly to the current system where students attend the middle school and then the intermediate.

Both the intermediate and the senior high schools are generally large enough to handle the increase, architects who have analyzed them have said.

There's a price tag on all four options White proposed, including his preferred method. The senior high school would get a wing added with 12 additional classrooms, and the intermediate would have some space on the first floor converted into 19 more classrooms. Architects priced those changes at $5 million and $3.5 million, respectively. Both are needed mostly because of special education classes and similar room requirements beyond typical general education.

In an interview, White said that the addition at the senior high school would connect two pieces of the campus where students currently walk outdoors from wing to wing, potentially aiding planned security improvements.

He also said the plan may help with transportation costs, as the elementary schools, intermediate high school and senior high could potentially each operate on different bus pick-up schedules.

School board directors sat in the audience for the presentation. White said he did not share the plan with them prior.

After the presentation, directors spoke with attendees by the exit of the auditorium. Many in the audience were current district employees.

Kaleena Lauer, parent of a rising fourth grader and a rising sixth grader, said she supported White's plan because the middle school team would be moved, but not too shaken.

“A different building doesn't matter to me,” Lauer said. “Keep the resources together.

Sharon Campbell, the grandmother of Lauer's students, agreed.

“These buildings can handle 2,000 kids,” Campbell said, referring to the two high schools. “Let's fill them up.”

Sandy Osche, a former teacher who worked with special education students during her career, said the need for more special-use rooms doesn't occur to many.

“They're things people don't think about,” she said.

She thinks the intermediate will lend itself well to the team-orientated teaching happening at the middle school now.

The three plans White outlined but didn't promote were as follows:

One option was similar to his favored plan, but put kindergarten through fifth in elementary schools. He said this would require substantial programming changes in fifth grade, and wanted to avoid altering the district's elementary schools as much as possible.

Another would add wings to Emily Brittain and Northwest elementaries so that both could become fifth and sixth grade middle schools.

And the last would be proceeding as is, with eventual work to either fix or replace the middle school.