Closing school getting closer

January 22, 2013, 9:00 pm by James Walker

Superintendent Keith McBurnett expects to make a formal recommendation to the school board Feb. 18 about possibly closing one of the Burnet Consolidated Independent School District’s elementary schools, he said Monday.

Facing a significant deficit and the uncertainty of state funding, McBurnett said last month that the district might have to close one of the three Burnet elementary schools.

The three schools are Shady Grove Elementary, Burnet Elementary and R. J. Richey Elementary, with Shady Grove regarded as the most likely to be shuttered.

"It was never our intent to pick on Shady Grove,” said McBurnett, who lamented the fact that it has been widely assumed and reported that the smallest of the elementary campuses would be the one to be closed.

The school board will hear a report from the Austin architectural firm Pfluger and Associates at a special Feb. 4 meeting, McBurnett said.

Pfluger and Associates was hired to study and assess the district’s elementary schools and options associated with a campus closing.

Also Monday the board approved new course offerings at Burnet High School and Burnet Middle School after hearing a report from secondary curriculum coordinator Jim Connor.

Beginning with the 2013-2014 school year, BHS students will be able to take four new courses, including Principle of Education Training, Principle of Hospitality and Tourism, Culinary Arts and Entertainment Graphics and Animation.

For more of this story, see Wednesday's Burnet Bulletin.