The Lansing School Board will be talking about closing schools tonight. Supporters of two city high schools are trying to keep them off the list.
The Lansing School District is looking at a budget deficit that could be as high as $20 million.
Tonight, district officials will outline their plan to pare that number down, and closing some school buildings and reconfiguring other schools is part of that plan.
Bill Morris is a member of ‘Save Our Sexton’, which is trying to keep Lansing’s Sexton High School off the closure list. He says they’ve been working with the Eastern High alumni group fighting its closure to get district officials to delay any decisions for a year.
"They do share many of the same goals, in terms of the future of the district," says Morris, "The only thing we really differ on is the building to close. If a building has to be closed in this matter for the obvious reasons. School Board president Myra Ford says she’s been briefed on part of the plan. She expects no action will take place for a month because the plan may be more broad and effect more schools than most people expect.
“And because of that I think we’re going to need to go out and give parents and other people …the opportunity to tell us what their reaction is," says Ford.
The plan was developed under retiring school superintendent Dr. T.C. Wallace. Critics want the Lansing school district to delay implementing any changes until a new school superintendent is hired. But that may be a long time off.
