Here is a screenshot from the video of the April 7 meeting of the Albany School District long-range facilities planning committee. Supt. Andy Gardner is standing in the rear.
Albany Public Schools are preparing to close some schools to save money over the next few years while also getting ready to ask voters to approve a major new bond issue for capital projects. To do both at the same time sounds like an impossible task.
School issues are not on my regular beat. I got wind of this one through an email from Superintendent Andy Gardner and from a Facebook post from Tangent.
The Tangent message urged residents to show up at a city council meeting to protest the possible closing of Tangent Elementary School in two or three years.
Other potential candidates for closing are Central, Oak, Waverly and North Albany elementary schools, as well as North Albany Middle School.
School consolidation was the main topic at an April 7 meeting of a long-range facilities planning committee. The committee is supposed to make recommendations to the school board later this year.
The committee meeting was video-recorded. You can watch it here.
The problem is that enrollment is declining and costs are rising. The costs per pupil are especially high in those of the district’s 14 elementary schools with the smallest enrollment.
The discussions also touched on a bond issue to raise money for what likely will be many millions of dollars worth of improvements in school buildings that remain, including the high schools. The district is planning on a bond election in 2027.
One likely project would be the addition of six classrooms at Takena Elementary. The rooms would be needed to accommodate children from Central School once Central is no longer open.
This story is not meant to be a detailed report. It’s just to take note of the fact that the Albany district, Greater Albany Public Schools, is getting ready to make some very big decisions, and I hope to let readers hear about it early on. (hh)
The facilities committee saw this slide showing how much could be saved over five years by closing four elementary schools.
Sadly, the communities that these schools serve are changing. They’re transforming into neighborhoods with retires (which is not bad).
Want these schools to stay open? Encourage the City of Albany to build apartments within their boundaries.
Yes, this! Families cannot live in Albany because there is no family-sized housing. We need more starter homes and apartments to attract young families and fill the schools.
I’d rather see them close
Care to explain?
This is going to hurt the kids in the end. Maybe some of the people in charge needs to take cuts.
It is bad to have retiree-skewed demographics when you need things like healthcare and IT workers.
Schools closing, yet Albany population growing. Who is zooming who?
Are they needing more district offices again? Who remembers when they did this in the past and turned them in to office buildings???
Honestly, does the leadership in this town ever speak to each other? On one hand, new apartments and homes are being jammed in everywhere. On the other hand, GAPS is considering closing schools. No one can get a new physician as they “aren’t accepting new patients”. Roads are falling apart and crowded, so we will need to grab more money through a local gas tax. How about getting together and making a plan to serve the population that already exists here in Albany before you add more residents to the mix?
BIINGO! You are spot on!
I totally agree with CS I shop in Corvallis most of the time as I live in NA and the roads are so congested I can’t make it to Albany! Too bad for Albany businesses.
Apartments and townhouses are springing up everywhere and now they’re talking no parking for new complexes! We aren’t Portland, transit must be built first before doing this. I rode my bike for 8 years and no bike paths either, several close calls! We look at closing schools because Corvallis is, how about we think for ourselves!
Albany is considering the consolidation of some schools because it is losing enrollment despite the slow growth in Albany’s population.
I’m confused…
From what I have read in the past Albany is growing leaps and bounds and expects to continue on this fast pace growth. Thus, the reason for all these large apartment complexes being built and permits issued for continually new apartment (large) buildings, Wanting to take the airport away to build more housing/business complex’s Sounds like we are losing residents, not gaining families.
I think the last part there is an accurate statement. The US is in a population decline and Oregon is even more so. The current replacement rate in the US is ~1.56 whereas Oregon is even lower at ~1.35
Its a mistake to close schools in this community with all the new construction going on. Hard to figure what the actual savings would be considering past history shows that GAPS does not liquidate schools once closing them
(Clover Ridge, Firgrove) and will still spend money on utilities and maintenance for those shuttered properties.
If our city can not care for our children now.
What plans do they have to care for the hundreds of children that will be filling all the hundreds of apartments the city is alowinf to be built.
Absolutely ridiculous is what I think of this. How can you put all that new development in South Albany and then want to close schools in that district? Enrollment is down I find that so hard to believe when development is up! Not only that but aren’t they anticipating enrollment to go up with the new development? Classroom size is already to full I don’t get it! I don’t know whose idea this was but they should be fired. Oh my goodness and I could just imagine what North Albany parents are going to do they will fight for their schools to stay
Drag yourself into the 21st Century. Women are no longer owned by either their father or their husband. They don’t have to have a baby every 12 to 15 months!!! The trend of less births is not new.
*too full oops
Once again just remember that 22 million & then vote nooooo. on everything..
Hopefully, they’ll reduce staff proportionately. That’ll be like pulling teeth, reducing the number of UNION members and thus their PAC contributions.
Just had to make a serious, life issue for parents, political…disgusting!
Hit a nerve there huh?
So what’s causing less population?Are more people homeschooling?Sending more kids to private schools?Do we need to look at making public schools more desirable?
Yes.
Part of the problem, as I see it, is that GAPS, among others, uses “Projected Growth” estimates when planning for the future. Oak Grove Elementary is a good example of this. A number of years ago HP in Corvallis was on a bug expansion spree and there employees wee buying the new homes in N. Albany. The old building was “going to be too small to handle the expected growth” so GAPS began planning for a new building. Then HP cut a lot of jobs and many of those families who had moved in left.
The new building was constructed but enrollment has not reached what was expected. Now GAPS is talking of closing that relatively new building.
Long term planning using projected numbers is a crap-shoot at best. Closing schools is costly and the City needs to take some of this responsibility because they keep pushing for expansion
Oak Elementary is a candidate for closure, not Oak Grove. Two different schools on opposite ends of town. Oak Grove has the most utilized space for an elementary in the district and currently does not have the capacity to absorb nearby N. Albany Elementary.
It is a amazing that people want to pick on groups of our population that have zero power to shape our community. It is not retirees, homeless or anyone else that is vulnerable causing the problem, it is greed. The restructuring is due to the city prioritizing the nonfamily homes or quick infusions of money. Owning a home is what most people want raising a family for security, community and equity later when kiddos go to college. Albany is losing ground because people live here for short term and move to a cities with better jobs and more opportunities for the kiddos to succeed. Making apartments not going to help anything long term. Building actual affordable homes and home retention keeps cities healthy. Wanting to close schools and ramping up city security are a red flag warnings of where Albany is heading.
Well if they close N Albany middle school then they won’t need to install the flashing lights for the school zone I read about in the last article.
The video is of a thinking EXERCIZE the Long Range Facilities Planning Committee participated in during ONE meeting. It would be fiscally irresponsible for the district to not look at ALL scenarios for managing and MAINTAINING the variety of facilities built in the last 100 years. Watch all the videos of all the meetings – not only this clickbait snippet designed to sow descent in the community about the schools, the leadership, and fiscal management. I implore HH to participate in more ethical and responsible reporting than this.
Exactly HOW do you expect Hasso to “participate in more ethical and responsible reporting than this.”?
Did you even read the last paragraph? You sound like Hartman with his HDS.
It would be interesting to see what the enrollment trends are at private schools, like Santiam Christian. Do their trends mirror the public schools, or do they offer a better education for students, thus helping to lower enrollment from GAPS.
Most any private school will far exceed public schools.
It’s a matter of discipline and parental support. Also, if they have a waiting list, they can simply be much “fussier” about the students they allow to attend.
Maybe the unionized team members need to go on strike again to speed up the collapsing school system?
It seems to me another factor in declining student enrollments might also have to do with many families are fed up with the quality of education. I have heard classrooms become battlezones that the teachers struggle to control. Parents need to go back to being parents of their kids instead of just friends who let them run the households thus they take same mentality to the classroom. Many families are abandoning public schools and choosing private, home school options. Many send their kids to school for a true education, not to chaos climate in the classroom!
Maybe we should ask what percentage of employees are teachers and what are support staff. Cut the things we use support staff for, how many of those things are mandatory and how many are not. With that thought process the cuts make themselves.
Why not give back all the out of albany school back to there communitys
With all the housing construction happening out past Mennonite home. If they close oak elementary school are they going to crowd other schools with students from oak elementary.
You would think means central elementary school is historical there should be grants or other funds to use to repair anything there.
Use the Cara money for schools instead of passing it out for profit business.