OTHELLO, Wash. — The Othello community is looking for answers following an announcement that one of their high schools will be shut down after this school year.
This comes in an effort to be proactive and make sure the Othello School District doesn't use any more of its reserve money.
"Oftentimes in education, we talk about change and how people react to change, but I think what people are struggling with now is loss," Superintendent Pete Perez said,
Perez said the district had to make changes to better support students with the resources available to them. By the end of this school year, the district projects it will need about $3 million from its reserve funds. That is why the district is implementing what it calls the Right Sizing Plan to help replenish the reserve fund and set the district up for success in the future.
"It's been a lot of mixed reviews," Perez said. "Closing down a school is not an easy decision, but I don't think it's unusual or unexpected, but what I'm really proud of is that we did it early enough to get people's input and put together a good program that supports people on both sides of this issue."
Perez said the driving factor in the decision was the fact that student enrollment is flat, meaning it isn't growing and bringing in money to the district like in years past.
"Think a couple of years down the road so what we see coming is the fact that we aren't going to be able to sustain some of the services that were offered," Perez said.
The current plan is to eliminate 23 positions across the district from all the different schools, 20 of those being teachers and three of those being administrators.
This also will merge Desert Oasis High School and Othello High School, which would save the district about $750,000.
"For myself, the first thing I thought about was how this is going to affect my students," Joshua Tovar, principal of Desert Oasis High School, said.
However, this change directly affects students and staff under Tovar, who has been the principal of Desert Oasis High School for the last eight years.
"It's going to be OK," Tovar said. "We have a plan. We are going to be working on a plan, and students are at the forefront of that plan."
Tovar, along with select staff from Desert Oasis High School, will make the transition with students over to Othello High School to create a plan of action for merging the two groups, as well as all the programs Desert Oasis currently offers.
"We want to continue to grow some of the things we are doing, some of the tools we are using at our current high school into our larger high school and impact the student body, as well as staff there," Tovar said.
Administrators both at the district office and desert oasis high school say that students and their education will continue to remain a top priority for them.