Tacoma schools Superintendent Charlie Milligan recommends the district close Gault Middle School on the East Side and Grant Center for the Expressive Arts in the North End at the end of this school year.

In the School Board agenda released Friday, Milligan proposes closing Gault, moving most of its students to McIlvaigh Middle School and eventually building a new school on the 27-acre McIlvaigh campus.

He recommends closing Grant and moving its students and arts focus to nearby Jefferson Elementary School. The majority of the two schools’ students would be consolidated at Jefferson, though some preschool and special-education programs at the schools would go elsewhere.

While the plan would require additional middle school transportation costs and one-time expenditures for portable buildings at Jefferson and McIlvaigh, Milligan estimates the closures would save the district $750,000 a year.

Milligan will present his recommendations to the School Board on Thursday and request the board approve the scheduling of public hearings at Gault and Grant.

Milligan stressed in an interview Friday that the proposal is simply his recommendation until the School Board decides to hold the hearings, listen to community comments and vote whether to close schools, a process that would take 90 days.

“We want to make sure we hear as many people as we possibly can,” said Milligan, who became superintendent of the 29,700-student district in July. “We want to get it right.”

The effort to close schools comes as the district experiences its fifth year of declining enrollment. The October student count declined nearly 9 percent since 2002.

Since last fall alone, the district’s lost 800 students. Fewer students means less money, because state support is based on the number of kids.

Tacoma’s not alone among urban districts losing school-aged population, as home prices rise and families head to the suburbs. The Seattle and Portland school districts also must close schools.

six schools on list

Tacoma administrators have warned for several years that the district would need to consider closing schools, and last November began compiling information on schools to consider.

A district advisory committee of staff and community members considered reams of data and in February recommended the district pick from among six elementary schools for closure.

Milligan reiterated his earlier announcement that he will suggest two more schools for 2008 closure once the board decides this round. That recommendation will likely come in February or March, he said.

He also plans to commission a demographics study to get forecasts of district enrollment over the next decade or longer.

“I want to emphasize this is phase one,” Milligan said.

In preparing his recommendation, the superintendent ran numerous ideas and scenarios past individual board members for input, Board President Kurt Miller said.

“We still have a lot of questions,” he said. “We haven’t been together as a board to discuss the situation.”

Miller said he looks forward to hearing community members’ thoughts on the proposal, and their suggestions on what should happen to Gault and Grant buildings if the recommendation is approved.

“We don’t want them vacant,” he said.

The Gault-McIlvaigh consolidation idea came as a surprise to some district observers.

While the two middle schools were among the initial group of buildings that the district advisory committee looked at, the group eventually focused on elementary schools.

new building for McIlvaigh?

Enrollment has been falling at McIlvaigh and Gault in recent years, and both buildings need significant renovation. McIlvaigh, in fact, was part of a construction bond proposal that voters rejected in February; Gault was slated to be renovated soon with proceeds of a 2001 bond measure.

Milligan suggests building a new school on the McIlvaigh campus, with the funds already set aside for Gault and basing its design on Giaudrone Middle School. McIlvaigh, with a 27-acre campus, is larger than Gault’s 7.4-acre site.

The expanded student body could continue attending McIlvaigh during construction because the new school would rise on another part of the campus.

If the board approves, the new building could open in fall 2009.

Meanwhile, Milligan recommends consolidating most of Gault and McIlvaigh student bodies at McIlvaigh next fall and adding portables to accommodate the additional students. He also suggests adjusting attendance boundaries so that some students would attend Baker or Stewart middle schools.

“This would effectively be saving taxpayers $40 or $50 million,” Milligan said, referring to the cost of a new middle school.

The recommendation to consolidate Grant and Jefferson had been expected by some largely because a group of Grant parents and staff had proposed the move. Grant also was among the six elementary schools that the district advisory committee had recommended be considered for closure.

Milligan acknowledges the consolidation would require moving portables in the short term to accommodate the combined student bodies, and could require construction of an additional classroom wing at Jefferson.

Grant parent Rich Wood said he and some other parents were relieved to hear that Grant students and staff would move to Jefferson instead of being dispersed to different buildings.

The parents spent several months drafting a proposal to voluntarily move to Jefferson as long as Grant’s arts programs were kept intact.

Wood said the parents will continue to work with the district to make sure that happens.

“From day one we’ve looked at this as an opportunity to not only preserve the good parts of our program but also to expand and strengthen it,” Wood said.

What’s next

 • Tacoma School Board meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Central Administration Building, 601 S. Eighth St., Tacoma, fourth-floor auditorium. Superintendent Charlie Milligan will present his recommendations to close two schools next fall and ask the board to approve the scheduling of public hearings. People may speak that evening, but the board will not vote on the recommendations.

 • If it approves the schedule, the board would hold public hearings on the school closure proposal at:

 •  Grant Center for the Expressive Arts, 1018 N. Prospect St., at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Dec. 12.

 •  Gault Middle School, 1115 E. Division Lane, at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Dec. 13.

 • In January, the board would vote whether to close schools.

 • In late February or March, Milligan plans to recommend two more schools for closure in the 2008-09 school year.

Debby Abe: 253-597-8694

debby.abe@thenewstribune.com

News Tribune reporter Tara M. Manthey contributed to this report.