School board votes to close Pratt

The Spokane Public Schools Board of Directors voted unanimously Wednesday to close Pratt Elementary School starting next year.

About 230 students from the southeast Spokane school will be sent to Lincoln Heights and Sheridan elementary schools, school officials said.

“This is not an issue that any of us wants to grapple with,” board member Rocky Treppiedi told parents and community members who came to the meeting at Willard Elementary School in one last effort to save the school. “We also have a very significant funding issue that is very real.”

But that was of little comfort to the Pratt students, parents and residents.

“I personally feel Pratt is being picked on,” said parent Stephen Latoszek.

In January, Superintendent Brian Benzel proposed closing the school to help fill a budget gap of more than $10 million worsened by years of declining enrollment and state underfunding.

Pratt is the smallest of the district’s elementary schools, and according to a study by district staff the most feasible for closure.

After a 90-day public input process, Benzel recommended at the school board’s regular meeting that the school be closed to save about $450,000 a year.

The district would also be able to terminate a lease on an East Trent Avenue building that houses the district’s Special Education Assessment Center. That operation would move to Pratt.

It’s likely that the majority of staff and the principal at Pratt would be absorbed by other schools. Teachers with continuing contracts would be given the choice of open positions in the district, said teacher Kathy Ducrest.

“We have kind of known that we were being considered for closure because of our size,” Ducrest said.

Ducrest, who teachers a first- and second-grade combination class, said talk of closure has been most difficult on the older students over the past three months.

“We’ve been trying to get the WASL all finished before this decision,” Ducrest said. Students are in the middle of taking the high-stakes state exam this week.

But the school closure is most disappointing to the community surrounding the school, located in Spokane Valley’s Edgecliff neighborhood, where neighborhood activists fought hard to keep it open.

“I can walk down the street, and I’ll see kids playing, and they know me by name,” said Rick Scott, a member of the Edgecliff neighborhood and the director of SCOPE (Sheriff’s Community Oriented Policing Effort). “If the kids are sent elsewhere, we’ve lost an important connection. I can see it slipping away from us.”

The Edgecliff SCOPE has helped clean up the once crime-ridden community. The neighborhood received a federal Weed and Seed grant several years ago to help fight crime, and through the program has received about $750,000. The school is designated as a safe haven as a condition of the grant, and its closure could jeopardize future grants.

Community members also emphasized to the board that the closure is likely to affect home values and cause a spike in crime. Some residents threatened to take legal action against the district if they closed the school.

“This is an inconvenience to all members of the Edgecliff community,” said resident Patrick Martin. Some parents also threatened to transfer their children to the West Valley School District, which borders the Spokane district.

The board asked that the superintendent continue to work with Spokane Valley city officials and the Edgecliff community on a possible agreement that would still allow access to the building. It’s possible the Pratt community could still use some portions of the building for events, school officials said.

“It’s painful, and I understand the issues,” Benzel said. “But the tradeoff is, do we keep a physical plant operating and as a consequence further reduce programs to students across the district?”

School officials in recent months have proposed a host of other budget cuts, in addition to closing Pratt. Among them: cutting about 40 custodians and cleaning schools on a staggered schedule, closing a child care center for at-risk teen mothers at Havermale High School, reducing after-school programs at elementary and middle schools, eliminating middle school librarians and reducing some elementary librarians to half-time, and cutting freshman athletic teams.

The school board will come together next week to continue to look at possible budget reductions, Benzel said.

“I’m hoping to take some things off the table, if I can,” Benzel said.

The district was hoping that the state budget recently passed by the Legislature – but not yet signed by the governor – would provide some reprieve for unfunded state mandates. But Benzel said this week that the session did not provide the necessary funding for basic education. If anything, it may add more mandated programs that will widen the current budget gap.

“There’s tons of new money for education, but it’s tied to specific programs,” Benzel said. “The best example is full-day kindergarten.”

The budget spends billions more for education, including phasing in all-day kindergarten – at least five Spokane elementary schools will be affected – cost-of-living increases to school staff, more funding for math and science education, decreasing class sizes and expanding prekindergarten programs.

“We don’t get to make a decision based on what’s popular,” Treppiedi said of the school closure. “We have to do what’s responsible.”