Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) will close Interlochen Community School and the International School at Bertha Vos at the end of the school year in June due to low enrollment and high overhead costs. An $800,000 donation offer from an anonymous Old Mission Peninsula resident stands between Old Mission Elementary School and a decision on its future.

Acting on the recommendation of Superintendent Paul Soma, the board voted Monday to defer a decision on Old Mission until its next regular meeting April 11. Soma said he hasn't met with the donor.

“I haven’t been able to work out the details,” he said. “There are a lot of moving parts, and I don’t have a definitive answer,” related to policy on accepting such a donation, how it might impact the district and what the donor’s expectations are around the donation.

Board treasurer Scott Hardy congratulated the Old Mission community on its focus on the students during this decision process around low-enrollment buildings, but adds the donation offer “does complicate things” and says outstanding issues – particularly those related to equity – need to be addressed.

Old Mission was not recommended for closure until 2018, following the reconstruction of Eastern Elementary School.

A look at the two closures:

– International School at Bertha Vos: The elementary (K-5) International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme will be relocated to Traverse Heights Elementary, with that school becoming the in-town option for the IB program; school boundaries remain unchanged. Savings: $300,000 in annual operations and $370,000 to be reallocated in capital funding.

– Interlochen Community School: With Vice President Megan Crandall casting the lone dissenting vote, the board voted to close the school and redistrict the current Interlochen boundary between Westwoods and Silver Lake elementary schools, dividing the K-5 student body between the two schools. Savings: $400,000 in annual operations and elimination of $10 million from the capital plan (for construction of a new school). In her vote against the closure, Crandall noted the $800,000 that has been put into the building over the last few years could not be ignored; she suggested alternative educational opportunities there.

“I’m not convinced this is the best long-term solution,” she said of the school closure.

But board member Gary Appel said that despite the expensive band-aids the district has invested In Interlochen to keep it open, the school is “past its useful life,” adding that the bottom line is the district “has more elementary schools than we can support.”

“I know Interlochen is one area for potential growth, and it offers affordable housing, but the fact is roughly one-third of the students [who live within its boundary] come to town to go to school,” added board member Kelly Clark.

Last week, the Green Lake Township Board passed a resolution stating if TCAPS decided to close Interlochen, the board would move to pursue the creation of a charter school. The board did not discuss that resolution last night. There is a deed restriction on the school property which states that if the building were to cease being used for an educational purpose, it would revert back to its owner, the Interlochen Center for the Arts.

In addition to these two closures, the board also approved $500,000 in budget adjustments to arrive at an overall $1.2 million reduction for next year's budget. Those adjustments include streamlining of transportation routes, elimation of positions through attrition, and reductions in maintenance.

The last time the TCAPS district voted to close schools was July 2007, when a 4-3 board decision closed Bertha Vos, Glenn Loomis and Norris elementary schools in the fall of 2008.