By Keely Coghlan
Odessa American
BARSTOW -- The elementary school here saw its last students
walk out the door this spring.
Trustees from the Pecos-Barstow-Toyah Independent School District voted last
week to close the doors of the community school here because of the district's increasing
financial problems.
"We're making major cuts and changes throughout the district,"
Superintendent Don Love said Monday. "We have got to cut costs."
The district has eliminated 45 aide and paraprofessional jobs and is looking
at closing two additional campuses in Pecos for the 1999-2000 school year, Love said.
"I don't see where this is going to help the (Barstow) community,"
Love said. "Deep down inside, nobody wants to close campuses or cut people. But
that's what needs to be done."
Enrollment in the school district has declined steadily, losing 305 students.
That translates into $800,000 to $1 million in reduced state funding based on average
daily attendance, Love said.
The district expects to lose another 50 students by the start of the 1998-99
school year, he said.
"Attendance is vital. We are doing everything we can to get the students
coming," Love said.
The district has a 94.8 percent attendance rate, and the increase of just one
percentage point would translate into an additional $800,000, Love said.
But don't tell that to Barstow residents, who successfully fought an effort
to close the school one year earlier.
"We may only be 23 kids, but we are a community," said Barstow
postmaster Gloria Avila. "We are in shock that it actually was done."
Barstow residents and mineral values pay for the operation of the school,
Avila said.
"Last year, we fought for it. This year, we didn't have a chance,"
Avila said.
The school had 30 students in the 1997-98 school year, but that is predicted
to drop to 26, Love said.
Reeves County Commissioner Julian Flores argued in favor of keeping the
school open, but trustees said they could not afford to have a separate school for first
through fifth grades.
"We are in financial exigency. We are short for next year and this
year," Love said. "We are making major cuts in the school system."
The decision leaves little choice for parents who have been actively involved
with the community school for years.
"The children will go into Pecos, or some will move away," Love
said. "As far as we know, there is nothing we can do."
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