By: MIKE CAPUTO
Consolidation remains in the near future for the Lawrence school district, but not when students return to class in the fall.
In a letter released to the District 15 community on Wednesday, Lawrence school board President Murray Forman announced that a school will not be closed for the 2008-2009. However, the school board president revealed that consolidation is imminent, and a decision to close a school will be made before January 2009.
A demography study, conducted in the fall of 2007 and presented in January 2008, predicts that public school enrollment will continue to decline. The demographer told school board members that the district has the ability to close a school by 2008.
Forman told the Herald in April that the Board of Education would not rush to close a school, and would only do so if it made sense for the district. In his statement, Forman noted the decline in school enrollment as his reasoning for consolidation for the 2009-2010 school year.
"Given the continued decline in school enrollment, further consolidation will take place in time for the start of the 2009-2010 school year," Forman said in the letter. "The Board will announce a consolidation plan prior to January 2009 and will at that time identify the school to be closed."
The Number Four (Inwood), Number Five (Cedarhurst) and Number Six Schools (Woodmere) were included as possible school closures in Superintendent Dr. John Fitzsimons presentation of consolidation options in January.
Read the July 3 issue of the Herald for more on Forman's announcement.
