The future of Crawford Elementary School is uncertain due to the current budget crisis facing the Ames Community School District.

Long-term plans of closing the smallest elementary school in the district were proposed by Superintendent R. Nick Johns to the school board Monday night.

Johns recommended Crawford Elementary, 415 Stanton Ave., should stay open for the time being, but he said in the future, the school will need to be closed because of its inefficiencies.

“The biggest reason [to eventually close the school] is because it has the lowest enrollment and the highest fixed cost per student,” Johns said.

He said 113 students currently are enrolled at Crawford Elementary, and fixed costs are about $305 more per student than the district average.

Mike Bell, who lives at 2322 Baker St., has a child enrolled in the school and is the unofficial spokesman for Crawford Elementary parents. He argued to the school board that changes could be made to keep the school open and efficient.

“If the cost of bussing our kids to different schools is taken into account and the way our boundaries are drawn, we don’t look so inefficient,” Bell said.

He said Crawford Elementary also would be more efficient if it met the desired average number of children per class.

A major concern Bell said he had about the school’s possible closing was how it might affect the quality of his child’s education.

“It is reasonably inefficient but highly effective,” Bell said. “Achievement scores at Crawford on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills in virtually every category are at the top or close to it among Ames schools every year.”

While Bell would like to see more small schools, Johns is pressed by budget issues to push for larger schools.

“We need to be looking at multi-grade sections in schools in the future,” Johns said.

If Crawford closed, Ames would lose one of two elementary schools south of Lincoln Way. With future plans of residential development in the area and the potential for more children, Bell said residents are worried.

“It’s a good neighborhood to live in,” said Sedahlia Crase, who lives at 2327 Baker St.

Crase said the area has a nice mix of young and old residents; in addition to a number of college students, there are many families.

“If there’s no school, things will change,” she said. “Families don’t want to move to neighborhoods without schools.”

Two other options proposed to cut the budget include reducing the number of grade sections at Sawyer Elementary School from three to two, which would increase the number of children at Crawford, or laying off elementary school teachers throughout the district.

If the school was closed, the building would be sold and probably rezoned for multiple-family dwellings, Johns said.

He said students most likely would be relocated within a few years to the Ames Middle School building, 321 State Ave. Building proposals under the district’s consideration may leave the middle school empty, he said.

LaDona Rowings, president of the Ames Public School Board, said she feels there won’t be an easy way to balance the budget.

“We have to deal with the budget problem by June, and there has to be a solution,” Rowings said. “Lots of things will have to be trimmed.”

The school board will meet Monday to further discuss the Crawford Elementary proposal. A formal decision should be announced by March 29, Rowings said.