WLCS sites' futures on agenda at meeting Thursday

The Walled Lake Consolidated School District Board of Education will consider four motions regarding the possible closures of the district’s Community Education Center, Maple Elementary, Twin Beach Elementary, and Twin Sun Facility at a board meeting slated to begin at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, Thursday, Aug. 18.

The building closures were recommended by the auditing firm of Plante Moran after it performed a facility utilization study this past year.

According to Plante Moran’s findings, the elementary schools are at 83 percent capacity with their current total enrollment of 6,618. The current enrollment capacity is 7,884.

Over the next five years, enrollment is projected to drop to 5,999 elementary school students. This would lower the enrollment to 76 percent of building capacity, with most of the schools being under-utilized.

After collecting and analyzing the instructional, operational, and enrollment information for each building, Plante Moran created an evaluation matrix that includes building functions, conditions, and operational costs, while also analyzing information gathered from public online surveys, community meetings, and an advisory committee before coming up with recommendations.

According to these recommendations, closing Maple Elementary School would provide the district an annual savings of $350,000 in operational costs, while shuttering Twin Beach Elementary School would save $305,000 in operational costs each year.

Further short-term recommendations include closing the Twin Sun Facility for an annual operational savings of $35,000. Current preschool programs would be relocated to buildings with existing preschools.

Another short-term recommendation is to close the Community Education Center, which would result in an annual operational savings of somewhere between $175,000 and $375,000.

Tomorrow’s board meeting will be held at the Educational Services Center at 850 Ladd Road, Building D, in Walled Lake.

All updated facility presentations can be found at www.wlcsd.org.