To the editor:

Closing any school should be a last resort. Closed schools produce stagnation in a neighborhood: Families move away, home ownership declines, property values fall and tax income shrinks. Later, the district borrows money for new facilities, and the cycle continues.

The elementary schools task force has recommended that Wakarusa Valley be closed by next fall. Further “consolidations” have been presented as inevitable, based on statistics assumed to be reliable.

Unfortunately, such reliability is doubtful. Closing Pinckney, for example, is estimated to save almost $700,000. But a similar exercise last year produced an estimate of $470,000 — an astonishing increase of 49 percent. (Increases at other schools fall in the 3-4 percent range.) Projected savings from teaching staff at Pinckney have increased nearly sevenfold, from $50,000 to $340,000. It is not clear how these figures were reached or which assumptions changed.

Pinckney’s classrooms are alleged to be small for the district, but on-site measurement shows them to be larger than reported. Likewise, Pinckney’s published “footprint” suggests no potential for expansion, but excludes land that has served for years as the school’s playground.

Similar inaccuracies may exist for other schools. If the stakes were low, we could afford to use faulty information. But the consequences are great and irreversible.

What vision is driving the mandate for the elementary schools task force? How many schools is Lawrence expected to retain 10 years from now? How will they relate to their neighborhoods? To make credible decisions about our children’s and community’s future, we must begin with reliable information.