By JOY LEIKER
jleiker@muncie.gannett.com

MUNCIE — Three hundred chairs lined up in perfect rows. The school board at the front of the room. A large screen ready to show off a budget-savings plan that closes a school and makes drastic changes at the middle school. And one microphone.
After weeks of worry, this was the moment parents and patrons had been waiting for. It was time to tell the Delaware Community Schools superintendent and board not to close DeSoto Elementary. And not to move the district’s 200 fifth-graders in with the big, tough sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders.
One hundred fifty people filled the seats.
Nine of them spoke.
If board members were ready for a tongue lashing, they didn’t get it.
There was no yelling. No screaming. Only a little begging.
“I love DeSoto,” said Denise Thornburg, a parent of two Del-Com students. “They say no child left behind. I think you guys really need to take that into consideration. It is an excellent school.”
Closing the smallest of Del-Com’s four elementary schools is expected to save $350,000-$400,000 a year.
But that won’t be enough to balance Del-Com’s budget in the future. Already Supt. Steve Hall has told staff inside the corporation’s six buildings there will be two fewer administrators, and three fewer secretaries, next school year. Overall, the corporation will lay off at least nine, and maybe 11 employees.
And there’s no indication the budget picture is going to get any better.
So that’s what leads the board to this point. Tuesday night they officially heard Hall’s latest option — three others were prepared by a task force last spring. Of the four proposals now on the table, three include closing at least one school.
And that’s where the emotion comes. Parents talk of their sick children who couldn’t have done as well if they were in a bigger school. Many worry about the effects of moving 10- and 11-year olds — fifth-graders — into the middle school full of preteens.
Mike Coulter spoke on behalf of a group of parents and patrons who have met in recent weeks to respond to this proposal. Coulter, father of a DeSoto student as well as a Delta High School student, presented the board with a two-page letter that asked 13 questions. In it, the group also expressed its concerns.
“We are very concerned about the idea of placing our young boys and girls in this close proximity with the much more mature seventh- and eighth-grade class despite your efforts to keep them segregated,” the group’s letter noted.
And Coulter said the group hopes to get answers to its questions. They’ve also created a blog for Del-Com parents and patrons to communicate: Delcomissues.myblogsite.com.
Alan Holdren knew when he took the microphone that he was outnumbered. A member of the initial task force, he said he’s come to understand that the board has to take action.
“I don’t want the federal government to control my health care and I do not want the state of Indiana telling our teachers, our administrators, or our board how to serve our community,” Holdren said.