Facing a budget deficit of $3.9 million, Superintendent of the Brunswick School District Paul Perzanoski announced a proposal last week to close Jordan Acres School.
In addition to closing the school, which is located at 75 Jordan Avenue in Brunswick and enrolls kindergarten through second-grade students, Perzanoski's plan calls for laying off 32 employees. According to Perzanoski, closing the school would save the district more than $1 million.
Under the current proposal, kindergarten and first grade students at Jordan Acres would be moved to Coffin Elementary School, located at 20 Barrows Street in Brunswick. The second graders would join third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students at the new Harriet Beecher Stowe School, slated to open in the fall of this year.
Plans to close Coffin School are expected to follow after Longfellow Elementary School closes in June. The Town of Brunswick recently committed to an agreement with Bowdoin to convey the Longfellow property, located at 21 Longfellow Avenue, to the College in the coming months.
The proposal was met with a strong reaction from the school board. The board expressed fears that class sizes might become too large to properly accommodate students.
Despite the apparent criticism and worries, the school board must still address the challenges of reduced state funding for education and the loss of federal funding for students of military families following the closure of Naval Air Station Brunswick in May.
Perzanoski's proposal also called for the elimination of bus transportation for students to and from Brunswick High School, which schools are not mandated to provide under current law.
A budget has not yet been finalized for the upcoming school year, and Perzanoski is still in talks with union representation over confirming employee health insurance and salaries.
The closure proposal follows a myriad of suggestions by Perzanoski in an attempt to shrink the budget gap. He has earlier proposed discontinuing a summer math camp and shortening the academic year to reduce costs.