St. Paul school board to vote on closure of two schools

The St. Paul School Board will decide tonight whether to close Roosevelt and Longfellow Schools after the upcoming year to save money.

The original plan was to close three schools - but the board last week voted to keep Sheridan Elementary open.

Interim Superintendent Suzanne Kelly said that means the district will have to find more cuts to make up for the savings that Sheridan's closing would have created.

"Now that Sheridan will not close as part of this recommendation, we will have to find an additional $500,000 for the 2010-11 school year," Kelly said. "Now what that might mean is we might have to look at another school. We haven't determined whether we'll have to go that route, or whether we'll have to find it somewhere else in the budget."

Kelly said the school closures are needed because the district's enrollment is declining.

The closures are part of a far-reaching plan called the "Large Scale System Change," which also calls for other changes such as busing. The board is only discussing building closures tonight.