At Thursday's meeting of the Mineola Board of Education, Dr. Charles Fowler and Dr. Vincent Beni of School Leadership, LLC gave a presentation to the board of education on the grade configuration study. It appears that closing two schools and realigning the grades of the district is a real possibility. District residents will have a chance to comment when a survey is sent this month.

School Leadership was commissioned by the board of education after a suggestion by a community-based finance committee and members of the committee urged the board to look at controlling school district expenses. The Mineola School District has one of the highest costs per student in the state.

Dr. Fowler and Dr. Beni presented the board with four options, three which involve closing two schools and one of which involves closing three schools. The Mineola School District is currently comprised of an early childhood school - the Willis Avenue School - for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten grades; four elementary schools - Jackson Avenue, Hampton Street, Meadow Drive and Cross Street - for grades one through five; a middle school for grades six through eight and a high school for grades nine through 12.

Closing two schools is a real possibility for the board of education to consider since, according to the grade configuration study, the school district buildings are vastly underutilized and the district's population is not expected to increase.

According to the study, schools that serve pre-kindergarten to fifth grades (Willis, Jackson, Hampton, Cross and Meadow) are operating only at 67 percent capacity while the middle school is operating at 69 percent capacity and the high school at 55 percent capacity, based on projected enrollment figures for 2009.

Dr. Fowler and Dr. Beni came up with four options for the board to consider. The options have one thing in common in that they do away with the district's current system of neighborhood schools and create cluster schools that will house all students from the district according to grade. The public will also have an opportunity to rate each option via a survey. The options are as follows:

• Close two schools so that five of the seven school buildings will be used.

• One building for pre-K and kindergarten (presumably the Willis Avenue School)

• One building for grades one and two

• One building for grades three and four

• One building for grades five, six and seven

• One building for grades eight, nine, 10, 11 and 12 (presumably Mineola High School)

• Estimated savings $3.65 million per year

• Close two schools

• One building for pre-K and kindergarten (presumably the Willis Avenue School)

• One building for grades one, two, three and four

• One building for grades one, two, three and four

• One building for grades five, six and seven

• One building for grades eight, nine, 10, 11 and 12 (presumably Mineola High School)

• Estimated savings $3.45 million per year

• Close two schools

• One building for pre-K, kindergarten and first grade

• One building for grades two, three, four and five

• One building for grades two, three, four and five

• One building for grades six, seven and eight

• One building for grades nine, 10, 11 and 12 (Mineola High School)

• Estimated savings $2.62 million per year

• Close three schools

• One building for pre-K, kindergarten and first grade

• One building for grades two and three

• One building for grades four, five and six

• One building for grades seven, eight, nine, 10, 11 and 12

• Estimated savings $3.90 million per year

Of course, the board could opt for a fifth option and leave the school system the way it is or adopt another option to reconfigure the grades.

The survey asking district residents to rate each option as well as make additional comments is expected to get to people's homes in the second week of March. A focus group will likely be held in April.

When it came time for the public to ask questions about the grade configuration study, there were some questions alluding to which schools would be the ones to close if the board of education elected to go that route. Dr. Fowler said the particular schools have not yet been decided since there are multiple options to the configurations. Which schools, if any, would close would be a decision made by the board of education.