Okaloosa School Board votes to close most of Valparaiso Elementary

CRESTVIEW — Valparaiso Elementary School as it is known today will change next fall.

The School Board voted 3-2 to close the school after revising all three proposals presented by the district in December to combat declining enrollment in central Okaloosa County.

“It is extremely difficult to make the decision we did tonight,” said Superintendent Alexis Tibbetts after the meeting.

Under the approved plan proposed by board member Howard Hill, all second- through fifth-grade classes at the school will move to Lewis Middle School. Students in kindergarten and first grade will continue at the Valparaiso Elementary building.

Lewis Middle School will become Lewis School and Valparaiso Elementary will become Valparaiso School.

Valparaiso School will also house classes of pre-kindergarten and pre-kindergarten disabled students as was originally proposed.

The Board also approved amended zones for students living in the area.

Using the original proposal for zoning changes, which essentially shifted all the zones west, Hill requested the zones be altered to improve enrollment numbers at Lewis next fall.

For the elementary students, all the Niceville residents south of Valparaiso Boulevard can either choose to attend Plew Elementary School or Valparaiso and Lewis next fall.

Middle school students will also have a dual-enrollment option. All students south of U.S. Highway 20 between Turkey Creek and Swift Creek can choose to attend either Lewis or Ruckel Middle School.

Busing plans still need ironing out.

“I’m very disappointed because at the end of the day, the school district is still going to spend considerable money at Eglin,” said parent Christi Moore. “They’re not increasing the true middle school population … . This isn’t addressing the issue.”

The decision came after more than a month of discussions with parents and students who wanted to save their school.

Monday’s meeting began with the board voicing reservations about the proposal.

Hill was the first board member to speak and during that time offered the alterations to the original proposal.

A big part of the reason he proposed keeping the kindergartners and first-graders at Valparaiso was to eliminate the need for modular classrooms at Lewis.

If those students had been sent to Lewis, the district would have needed to bring in portable classrooms equipped with their own bathrooms to meet state law.

At the time, the other board members questioned his proposal, and Chairman Rodney Walker pointed out they had tried a similar program in Fort Walton Beach several years ago and it hadn’t worked out.

Vice-chairwoman Cindy Frakes was the next board member to speak and highlighted again her reservations, as she did at the Jan. 19 meeting. She said she was still worried about putting older and younger students in one school and high-lighted the unresolved questions about housing on Eglin Air Force Base.

“I’m just concerned we’re leaving some things undiscussed and I don’t know if I am ready to vote to close or remission,” she said.

Walker reiterated Frakes’ concerns and then offered some of his own.

Walker said the board should vote not to close Valparaiso and consider another option to deal with declining enrollment: Close Eglin Elementary School.

From a savings perspective, he said, it makes more sense to close Eglin because Eglin is receiving $10,000 more aid than Valparaiso. He also pointed out by closing Eglin, the district could boost enrollment numbers at three surrounding elementary schools including Valparaiso.

“I know this: We can’t please everybody. But I’m looking at the money and what’s best for the kids,” Walker said.

Board members Cathy Thigpen and Chuck Kelley did not propose any changes to the original proposals.

The audience was then allowed to address the board and parents. City officials and one student took the opportunity to speak.

“Tonight, I would like to ask each of the School Board members to help save my school,” said fifth-grader Nathan Bohler. “Let’s work this out to make all the schools more even.”

Around 5:35 p.m. — 95 minutes into the meeting — the board began final deliberations.

Before they voted, Kelley took a moment to address the crowd and the board.

Acknowledging that no matter what decision they made, they weren’t going to make everyone happy, Kelley said he would support Hill’s proposal because new proposals were simply putting off the inevitable: Shuffling students around wasn’t going to resolve the declining enrollment issue.

With Frakes and Walker dissenting, the board passed the measure just before 6 p.m.

At the end of the meeting, after most of the crowd had left, Thigpen said she was concerned at how many schools in the district still had fewer than 600 students enrolled and relied on monetary supplements. She suggested more closures could be in the near future.

What’s still unclear is exactly what cost savings the board’s decision will manifest. Hill said that would be hard to tell until enrollment figures are known.