Arguments over the proposed closure of high schools in Sheffield and Youngsville will continue this week.

The Warren County School District is holding a closure hearing regarding the two schools on Wednesday evening.

The session will begin at 6 p.m. and be held at the Warren Area High School auditorium.

The factors cited include “declining enrollment and budgetary constraints and to afford the students with improved course offerings and educational opportunities,”according to the motion approved by the board. The proposal would see Sheffield students “re-assigned” to Warren Area High School while Youngsville students would go to Eisenhower.

Administration laid out a host of data points to support the recommendation in a meeting last month.

Driving the discussion is the fact that the school district’s budget has grown by about one-third over the last 10-15 years while the total number of students has fallen by about 25 percent. There appears to be a recognition among many school board members that the financial challenges are not challenges that tax increases alone can solve.

Data presented projects a $794,298 savings for the 2025-2026 school year by closing Sheffield 9-12 and an additional $1.115 million by merging Youngsville into Eisenhower. Over a five-year window, the Sheffield closure would present a total savings or cost avoidance of over $2 million, equivalent to over six mills in taxes, according to information from the administration.

The Youngsville to Eisenhower option would protect total savings or cost avoidance of nearly $5 million, totaling over 12 mills.

Information also outlines the district’s cost per student in each school — $16,686 at Eisenhower, $17,472 in Warren, $19,544 in Youngsville and $23,107 in Sheffield.

On the revenue side, a total of $23.25 million was generated by local property taxes. Splitting that out by attendance area, the per capita amount of taxes paid was $722 in the Central Attendance Area, $648 in the Youngsville area, $601 in the Sheffield area and $592 in the Eisenhower region.

ENROLLMENT

It’s beyond dispute that a significant portion of this entire discussion centers around ongoing, continuous declines in the student population. Enrollment data shows a total of 8,876 students in the WCSD in the 1979-1980 school year. That number fell to 6,548 by 2000 and under 5,000 in 2010. The most recent data — the 2023-24 school year — shows a total 3,860 students — 1,953 in elementary and 1,907 in secondary.

On average, 71 students in grades 8-12 have been leaving the school district each year. Projecting that out for a decade will leave less than 1,000 students in the WCSD in ninth through 12th grades. But, perhaps more importantly, where those students live presents equally strong challenges.

While Youngsville and Warren might look like the two most logical places in Warren County geographically to host a high school, the population map complicates that discussion as there are less than 90 WCSD students in Watson, Limestone, Deerfield, Triumph and Eldred townships.

QZAB

The district’s renovation and construction projects over the last 15 years — Eisenhower, Sheffield’s elementary wing, Beaty, the Warren County Career Center and Warren Area High School — have been funded by QZAB bonds.

Qualified Zone Academy Bonds are low-to-no interest federal bonds that can only be utilized for renovation of existing school buildings. It’s long been thought that the QZAB bonds require a renovated building to remain open as a school.

That’s more or less, accurate. And the impacts of not complying with those provisions would be financially draconian for the WCSD – over $1 million with Sheffield and over $10 million with Eisenhower. The bonds will be paid in full in 2034 at Sheffield and Eisenhower. Similar bonds for the Warren County Career Center and Warren Area High School will be paid in 2040.

RENOVATION PLANNING

Renovation estimates for the next several years presented on Monday show $4.7 million in work needed at Warren Area Elementary Center as well as $4.3 million at Youngsville Elementary. The estimated renovation costs for Sheffield High is $21.5 million while the cost for renovations at Youngsville High is projected at $25 million.