To the editor:

Journal-World coverage of the school board’s public hearing on possible school closings failed to report many of the well-researched suggestions made by the attendees.

Here are some of the suggestions: One-day-a-week furloughs for administrative staff during the summer, which the Olathe school district did last year; furloughs for teachers on days not covered by their contracts; a small percentage reduction of salaries of everyone paid by USD 497; drawing boundaries so that smaller schools have more students; evaluating the more than $5 million spent on Lawrence Virtual School, which is a service that does not directly educate our own children. These are only a few of the options raised by the speakers and do not include those discussed at the study session.

What’s more, important research was presented about the dire effects that closing a neighborhood school has on property values in the school’s area, such as the fleeing of single families, increased number of rentals, less care given to properties by landlords and lower revenue from property tax. Given the proximity of the neighborhoods of both New York and Cordley schools to downtown, the erosion in property values in these neighborhoods caused by schools closing would reverberate for the entire community. As one speaker said, “Downtown is the jewel in Lawrence’s crown,” so destabilizing these neighborhoods could hurt the heart of the city.