SAGINAW, MI — The Saginaw School District plans to close one of its three high schools after the 2014-2015 school year, but which one won't be decided until fall.

The Saginaw Board of Education on Wednesday, July 23, voted 4-2 to approve a deficit-elimination plan that includes closing either Saginaw High or Arthur Hill High School and cutting staff wages. Board members Rudy Patterson and Mattie Thompson opposed the plan; Ruth Ann Knapp was absent.

"It doesn't make sense for a family of two to live in a five-bedroom home," Superintendent Carlton Jenkins said in discussing the need to consolidate.

The get-out-of-debt plan will have Saginaw schools back in the black by July 2016, Jenkins said, eliminating its $6.1 million deficit, which is projected to rise to $7 million in the coming school year.

The Michigan Department of Education mandates Saginaw must correct its deficit by June 2016.

Earlier this year, the Saginaw school board and state approved a deficit-elimination plan that includes closing Heavenrich and Houghton elementaries and Daniels Middle schools, adding eighth-grade students to Saginaw High and Arthur Hill High schools, closing the staff development building at 1505 Ottawa and laying off about 50 teachers in two years.

Additional reductions call for staff taking an additional 6 percent pay cut on top of cuts already in place for the next two years. Teachers will receive 9 percent salary cuts in total, executive staff members 11 percent pay cuts and all other employees 8 percent wage cuts.

The get-out-of-debt plan includes eliminating prep time for teachers across the district to save $1 million. All staff members will have common planning time to support professional learning communities.

Beverly Yanca, school board president, said the board does not like making decisions to close schools and cut pay.

"We want to see this school district survive," she said.

Saginaw schools leadership will examine fall enrollment figures and cost per student at its two traditional high schools, Saginaw and Arthur Hill, to determine which to close in the fall, Jenkins said. The Saginaw Arts & Sciences Academy, the district's magnet middle and high school program for gifted students, will remain open.

The cost savings from consolidating the schools is yet to be determined, Jenkins said.

Saginaw High School is at 49 percent of its capacity with 643 students in the 2013-2014 school year, and Arthur Hill High School's is at 61 percent of its capacity with 937 students.

District wide, Saginaw enrolled 7,199 students in the 2014-2015 school year.

Jenkins said the community will have the ability to help shape the new high school.

"It's time for us to fall together instead of apart," Jenkins said. "Saginaw can do this."

The move to close a high school comes after Saginaw schools has closed more than a dozen elementary and middle school buildings in the past decade.

Jenkins said the district is trying to make sure Saginaw students are college and career focused, the schools have highly effective staff at all levels and there is a safe and orderly learning environment for all children.

Saginaw schools aims to have a comprehensive high school, Jenkins said, that will produce graduates who can compete all over the world.

"We are talking about restoring excellence in all aspects of the organization," he said. "Saginaw public schools will come back."

The comprehensive high school will aim for International Baccalaureate authorization and have an increased science and math focus, a full compliment of athletic programs funded by the district, a robust arts program, new band and music programs and foreign languages courses in Spanish and French.

Board member Patterson has been a vocal opponent of closing schools in Saginaw and opposed the plan again on Wednesday.

"When we closed schools, we lost students," he said. "There are districts that are surviving with less."

'Don't push it off'

Speaking during public comment, Zilwaukee parent and school board candidate Barbara Kopka said the district needs to take the Band-Aid off fast and close a high school now.

"Don't push it off another year. Make the tough decisions," she said to the board. "Fix the school for the teachers because they deserve way more than they are getting."

Greg Monroe, a 14-year Saginaw physical education teacher, said the district should look into health insurance as a means for saving money. His family didn't pay anything out of pocket for the birth of their son and his chiropractor visits throughout the year, he said.

Other school districts such as Midland Public Schools have dropped MESSA insurance and saved $500,000 to $1 million, he said.

"We don't have a money problem. We have a budgeting problem," Monroe said.

Matt Pumford, a Saginaw teacher who will lose his job this year, said he knows the district needs to make tough decisions. But if the leadership had made those decisions earlier, he said, he might not be losing his job.

The board's consistent 4-3 decisions do not help, he said.

"When 20 years pass, people are going to respect you for the decisions you made," he said.

— Lindsay Knake covers education for MLive/The Saginaw News. Follow her on twitter or contact her at 989-372-2498 or lknake@mlive.com.