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Davenport School Board rejects proposal to close a high school, looks to rural schools instead

DAVENPORT–  Five out of seven board members in the Davenport School District agree that Superintendent Art Tate’s Vision 20/20 plan should not include clo...

DAVENPORT--  Five out of seven board members in the Davenport School District agree that Superintendent Art Tate’s Vision 20/20 plan should not include closing North, West or Central high Schools.

Instead the board is looking towards schools on the rural schools outside Davenport’s city limits, to save money.

Board members agree that looking to consolidate Walcott, Blue Grass and Buffalo elementary schools would make more sense.

“We have three buildings that are barely at 50 percent compacity.  I propose we close Blue Grass Elementary,” says board member Julie DeSalvo

In the last 10 years the district has lost about 1,000 students and it expects to lose 600 more in the next five years. The decrease in student enrollment and tighter budget restriction is causing the district to make the hard cuts.

These latest discussions regarding the Vision 20/20 plan comes less than six months before the district has to present the plan to the School Budget Review Committee.

Parents speak out against Vision 20/20 plans to close a Davenport school

In addition to a school closing, the plan also calls for transportation and class schedule changes as well.

“There are a lot of dominos that are going to fall no matter what decision we make. We need to make sure that we’ve checked on all those dominos and we’re not going to have unattended consequences,” says board member Allison Beck.

Vision 20/20 plan: pushing back school start times

School administrators plan to review the most recent school closure proposal and present the board with a more detailed plan in about two weeks.

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