08/28/2026
Many of you had ✨GREAT✨ questions about our consolidation plans, and last night, we got many answers. Read on for last night’s meeting summary to get those answers. ⤵
💲📉💲First, the board reviewed and approved the five-year financial forecast and appropriations. It’s clearer than ever that our revenue is completely FLAT while our expenses continue to RISE—and that’s WITH the $10 million in cuts we’re planning to make. If the fall levy fails, we will need to cut about $9.6 to $14 million more (for a total of $24 million). There’s no way we can avoid cutting into the heart of classrooms, programs, and extracurriculars at that point. It would transform our district as we know it.
🏫 🏫 The rest of the meeting was spent discussing six proposed consolidation scenarios. Each scenario comes with different strengths and challenges, as well as different cost savings. None of these scenarios will require redistricting. All of them involve staffing reductions, including admins. We have not yet decided which buildings will close; instead, we discussed grade bands, enrollments, and capacity.
Ultimately, we narrowed it down to three options:
🏫 🏫 Scenario 1: K-2, 3-6, 7-8, 9-12 🏫 🏫
👉🏼 Three K-2 schools (450-500 students—lower in the out years)
👉🏼 Shore: grades 3-6 (but 1,000+ students in that building is tight)
👉🏼 Ridge: grades 3-6 (720 kids—this is tight, but workable)
👉🏼 Memorial: district-wide grades 7-8 (1,000 kids there would be tight, but would decrease over time)
👉🏼 MHS stays as-is
👉🏼 4 bus runs in AM and PM (similar to what we have right now, so we would still have a driver shortage)
👉🏼 Not a lot of room for growth if we somehow get an influx of families with new developments coming at the Bolton property and Mentor Heights
🏫 🏫 Scenario 3: K-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-12 🏫 🏫
👉🏼 4 K-3 elementary school buildings (this would include Ridge)
👉🏼 Shore: grades 4-5 (903 students)
👉🏼 Memorial: grades 6-7 (975 students)
👉🏼 MHS: 8-12 (2,500 students)
👉🏼 Separate bell schedules, class transition times, and physical location for grade 8
👉🏼 Add/relocate playgrounds to the middle school properties
👉🏼 Grades 4-5 will continue to get We Care
👉🏼 Allows for growth at all buildings if needed, makes better use of our largest available space
👉🏼 3 bus runs, and we may stagger start and end times
🏫 🏫 Scenario 6: K-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-12 🏫 🏫
👉🏼 4 K-4 elementary buildings (leaves little room for growth)
👉🏼 Shore: grades 5-6 (896 students)
👉🏼 Memorial: grades 7-8 (1,000+ students would be tight, but would decrease over time)
👉🏼 MHS: stays as-is
👉🏼 Add/relocate playgrounds to the middle school properties
❓❓ Here are some answers to some FAQs we’ve received: ❓❓
✅ Students in grades 4-5 will still have recess no matter where they are and we will build or relocate playgrounds.
✅ We Care will still exist, and in Scenario 1, would likely be expanded to grade 6 since we’d be offering it for grades 3-5 already.
✅ We are working on options to ensure sports and other extracurriculars remain available to middle schoolers, regardless of where they are. We understand that this is extremely important to their academic success and overall wellbeing.
✅ We will likely be selling at least some of the closed elementary buildings, but we’re still unsure at this point. We will repurpose the others.
✅ In all of the scenarios, preschool will be moved out of Garfield and into an elementary building. MHS’s preschool will stay as-is.
✅ Class sizes for all scenarios are calculated at 25 students, but we are working to decrease to 22-23.
✅ We’re exploring different start and end times for all grades.
💞 I am so grateful to you all for your excellent questions and ideas—your input is critical to this significant transition. Our next steps are to continue the discussion amongst the board and with the community, and that includes a town hall- or Cardinal Cafe-style event. We will get through all of this together! Stay tuned.
Watch the meeting here: https://youtu.be/Kgl7mTJklPs
