2 Schools Remaining Open, 2 Closing In Pueblo

Supporters of several Pueblo schools on a closure list gained a partial victory Thursday night, as the District 60 school board made some final decisions on a controversial realignment plan to save money.

During a three-hour meeting, the board voted to keep Carlile and Beulah Heights elementary schools open next year, but to close Spann and Hellbeck elementary schools. A fifth school, Somerlid Elementary, will move into the building occupied by Freed Middle School next year and reemerge in 2014 as a school for grades K-8.

Two board members argued that Carlile and Beulah Heights are popular schools with among the best student achievement rates in the District.

“I don’t think the reward for being successful is to close the school,” said board member Mike Collucci. “But this is a reprieve. If we have to revisit it, we will. The message I’m sending out is for those schools to continue achieving.”

Shirley Amidon, a Carlile parent, said she wanted the school to remain open because it provides good programs for her autistic son.

“I’m very pleased,” she said. “If they had closed, we would have removed our son from District 60.”

Board members also voted to move the sixth grade into nine selected elementary schools, but opposed moving seventh- and eighth-graders into East High School, and rejected an expensive plan to expand Central High School with grades K-12.

The board insisted that the plan is the only way to cut costs and offset a $3 million budget shortfall. Board members said their decisions were not a negative reflection on the parents, students and staff at the affected schools. Declining enrollment and unexpected spending increases are factors in the budget situation, the board said.

The realignment plan is designed to boost achievement at middle schools, and much of the lost enrollment happens as students are entering middle school, board members said.

The board plans to address other aspects of the plan next month.