One Indiana Area School Board director is hoping a big university can help the school district save its small schools.

At Monday's school board meeting, director David Ferguson proposed that the district and Indiana Borough try to arrange a deal with Indiana University of Pennsylvania in which the university would charge its students a $35 "municipal services fee" with the proceeds going to the borough and the district.

Ferguson, who is a music professor at IUP, estimated that, if the district received $15 of that fee from IUP's approximately 14,000 students, it would generate about $250,000, or roughly one mill, for Indiana Area each semester. He's hoping that fee could eliminate the possibility of consolidating elementary schools to improve the district's future financial picture. The district's fund balance is projected to fall to $400,000 by the end of 2012-13.

Ferguson said the fee would help make up for tax revenue hits the district and borough take because of IUP's expansion. It was pointed out students living in the borough usually don't qualify for the district's wage tax because of their lower incomes.

Ferguson acknowledged the fee would be voluntary on IUP's part because the $35 would not be a tax.

"IUP could stand to gain in one way, and that is by having improved relations locally with all of us, and in turn, that could positively affect development, fundraising," Ferguson said. "At the same time, keep in mind this would be a fee assessed to students. This would not be money that would be paid from IUP coffers to us."

Ferguson pointed out IUP students pay a $12.50 fee that goes to the Indiana County Transportation Authority for bus service. He said that was the model for his proposal.

The municipal services fee is part of Ferguson's school alignment proposal that was one of three board members' plans discussed at Monday's meeting. Ferguson's proposal would keep all four elementary schools open while trying to save money in other areas -- including through attrition or possibly limiting the raises of administrators.

Ferguson said his plan is very similar to the one proposed by the Indiana Foundation for Education, a group of district residents opposed to elementary school consolidation.

Board president Diana Paccapaniccia said Ferguson's proposal would be further examined at the board's next meeting, but board member Kathy Baker expressed initial disapproval.

"I would actually rather find ways to find cuts in our budget to save a mill than to get into something like this," Baker said.

Also discussed were school alignment proposals previously offered by board members Rob Werner and Walter Schroth as alternatives to options proposed by L. Robert Kimball & Associates in its feasibility study.

Werner's "East Pike/West Pike" plan calls for building a new elementary school on the property of Ben Franklin Elementary to house students who attend that school and others currently assigned to the Horace Mann and Eisenhower schools. That would leave the district with two elementary schools, which concerned some board members.

"I think having one site where you have 800 kids, there's going to be some negative effects to that," said director Alison Billon. "I like the idea of three elementary schools each having about 400 students."

Board member Doug Steve suggested constructing a new school at the Ben Franklin site for about the same number of students could be cheaper than renovating the existing school.

Schroth's "Mothball Option" would keep all four elementary schools open, but parts of each building would be "mothballed" and not used. Savings would be found by sharing principals and other staff between the buildings, which would now have a smaller number of students because fifth and sixth grades would be moved to the junior high.

"This board and prior boards have never supported that," Paccapaniccia said of the concept of shuttling nurses and guidance counselors between buildings. "The community hasn't supported that. I think it's really important that we keep these people in the building."

Schroth countered that sharing would be possible because each elementary building would have only 140 to 160 students.

The board did not take action on any of the plans discussed at Monday's meeting.

In a related matter, the board agreed to pay Kimball architects $5,000 to study possible relocation of ninth-graders from the junior high to the senior high. The board is scheduled to vote on that move at its Aug. 9 meeting.

During the public comment period, district resident Ken Sherwood cited a 2002 report from the KnowledgeWorks Foundation that found the cost per graduate in districts with smaller schools was lower because those districts had a lower dropout rate.

"I cannot help but think that the current four-school elementary configuration with its smaller schools has a number of advantages that many districts would envy," Sherwood said.

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