RICHLAND, Wash. -- Last week, NBC Right Now spoke to parents who were against closing the Jefferson Elementary, spreading the kids out between Lewis & Clark, Sacajawea and Marcus Whitman, while and using the building for the Homelink program.
But after a public meeting Tuesday night, the Richland School Board will now consider other options.
More than a dozen parents spoke out against the move Tuesday, so Chairman Rick Jansons proposed two other options to keep the school open and still use just the $98 million they're hoping to get from the bond.
One suggestion is to reduce some of the renovations to the other elementary schools and make improvements to Jefferson, while sharing the building with the HomeLink Program.
The other would keep Jefferson as is, but also improve the other schools in anticipation of the state's full day kindergarten program which would expand the school by 22 classrooms based on enrollment numbers.
"Both of these options can be done with the same amount of money we think and we'll know this at our next meeting after the engineers take a look at this," said Jansons.
The engineers will look at both alternatives to see how feasible and affordable they are and pick up the discussion at the next board meeting in three weeks.
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