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Milton district trims budget but keeps four-class school open

MILTON — The Milton School District’s smallest school will remain open, for now.

Board members approved a number of budget cuts to shore up the estimated $758,000 deficit for the 2010-’11 school budget.

Consolidated Elementary School was not among the cuts, but board Vice President Allen Roehl said it’s a matter of time before the four-room, kindergarten through third-grade school near Janesville’s northwest side has to be closed.

“Eventually it’s going to close anyways, it’s just a matter of when,” Roehl said. “With the way the times are, I think the same issue will come up next year.”

Roehl and board member Mike Pierce voted against the cuts to keep Consolidated open. Closing the school would have saved the district about $181,000 next year, according to recent estimates. Board members were initially under the impression that closing the school would save the district nearly $600,000.

Money problems aside, for parents of the 90 students at Consolidated, it’s a different environment for their children, who are just starting school.

“Consolidated, even though it’s in the Milton School District, is just different,” said Amy Holden, who has a daughter in first grade at Consolidated and will have another child begin there next year. “You can’t really compare it to the other schools.”

Read the full story in the April 21, 2010 e-edition of The Janesville Messenger, PAGE 12.