Red Plan Plus was officially presented to members of the Duluth School Board on Tuesday, Jan. 12, promising a savings of approximately $70 million over the anticipated cost of the Red Plan.
Not a bad idea in a harsh economic climate -- and, the plan makes sound educational sense.
Red Plan Plus would utilize the same nine elementary schools as the Red Plan. It would not close Central High School, and it would not build a new western middle school or remodel East High School into a middle school. It would instead change grade configurations in Duluth schools to K-6 and 7-12. The Denfeld, Central and East high school campuses would have grades
7-12 with an independent grade 7-8 program within each school. An evaluation of current and projected elementary school buildings indicates they could handle the addition of a 6th grade.
Major savings in Red Plan Plus come from not building a new western middle school (which would save more than $49 million), from not remodeling East High School into a middle school (which would save another $25.6 million), and from selling the East property for $5 million. The total savings from not building or remodeling middle schools comes to $79.7 million.
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Further savings in Red Plan Plus come from reduced administration costs for secondary schools, estimated at $1 million per year or $20 million over 20 years (Red Plan cost estimates are calculated over
20 years). Savings in transportation (eight fewer buses at $30,000 per year) come to $4.8 million over 20 years. Savings from fewer out-of-town athletic trips comes to another $1.2 million over 20 years. The total savings from buildings, administration and transportation amount to $105.7 million.
Red Plan Plus would utilize the present Central High School, which would have to be remodeled. The cost for remodeling Central was done by an independent engineering and architectural firm and approved by the Minnesota Department of Education in the amount of about $7 million. The Central site would not be sold, as called for in the Red Plan, which would add back $10 million in costs. Each secondary school would need a swimming pool at a total estimated cost of
$15 million. The added costs amount to $34 million.
So the difference in savings and costs of Red Plan Plus over the Red Plan amount to about $71.7 million in favor of Red Plan Plus.
All figures used in this analysis come from District 709 documents developed by Johnson Controls or from plans for remodeling Central High School developed for Plan B submission to the Minnesota Department of Education.
Switching now to Red Plan Plus and saving all three high schools would obviously have some additional costs in lost architectural plans for both middle schools as well as a new track surface already installed at the east middle school site. But the cost savings would be substantial.
More importantly, Red Plan Plus keeps a secondary school in the central corridor of the city, avoids dividing the city into east and west, and maintains the highly successful three-high school program model the district now enjoys.
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Tom Boman is a professor emeritus of education at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Tom Day is a physician in Duluth, a post-graduate medical educator and the father of three children in Duluth public schools. Both worked on developing Red Plan Plus, an alternative to the Duluth school district's red plan.
