The Saint Joseph School District Board of Education moved on Monday to have administrators draft a modified two-high-school plan that would keep four middle schools, after hours of public comment urging a pause and calls for audits and demographic updates.

Dozens of parents, teachers and residents told the board the district has eroded community trust and asked leaders not to implement boundary changes or school closures until independent reviews are completed. "Change without transparency, community input, and a clear explanation of benefits is not progress, it's disruption," parent Carrie Haviger said during public comment.

Board members spent the bulk of the meeting weighing three long-range options—Plan E, Plan 2 and Plan 7. Several members said the district must act to restore financial stability; others urged delay for an audit and a new demographer. "I'd rather kick it down the road than kick it off the cliff," said Jeff Leake, the architect of Plan E, urging a performance audit and measured implementation.

District staff told trustees the district needs multimillion-dollar reductions to regain fiscal health. "The road to recovery looks at about $4,000,000 that we need to reduce from our budget over the next two years," a district administrator said, adding that other estimates presented during discussion reached as high as $8,000,000 depending on the scenario and timing.

Trustees said they wanted to reduce disruption for students while still addressing the budget shortfall. A majority of members signaled support for exploring a version of Plan 2 that restores a fourth middle school to reduce movement of elementary students and preserve feeder patterns; they asked staff to prepare precise boundary maps, a staffing-transition plan and updated financial projections for review.

The board directed administration to present the modified Plan 2 analysis and hold another public hearing under Policy FC before the Nov. 24 meeting, with a possible working session on Nov. 17. Members discussed grandfathering juniors and seniors, options for alternative education and protecting specialized special-education spaces currently at Webster, but left final transition rules unresolved.

Board action earlier in the meeting included routine approval of the agenda. Trustees closed the meeting after confirming the timeline for the next steps.

What happens next

District staff will draft the modified Plan 2 maps, model staffing and financial impacts, and return to the board at a specially scheduled public meeting for additional public comment before the board’s Nov. 24 vote. If the board does not adopt consolidation, administrators warned deeper staffing cuts or other measures would be required to meet reserve targets.

Attributions

Direct quotes in this article come from speakers recorded in the meeting transcript and attributed to the speakers who delivered them (Carrie Haviger; Jeff Leake; district administration). When a speaker’s full role or last name was not provided in the transcript, the article uses the role shown in the record (for example, “district administrator” or “board member”).