Some County School Board members Wednesday afternoon balked at administration plans to close Howard Middle School and 21st Century Academy next school year.

And administrators scaled back on earlier plans for shutting down those two schools by August.

Supt. Jim Scales, in a four-page memo to the board, recommended closing just the high school portion of the K-12 21st Century Academy.

And he said the eighth graders could stay at Howard Middle for the upcoming year.

But several board members said they favor postponing action on those two schools until there is a broad view of all potential school consolidations.

Board member Everett Fairchild said the schools should "back off" plans for those two schools until the board can sit down with the County Commission and others and assess how the school system will proceed in moving away from having so many small schools that are not cost effective.

He said if there had been such an overall plan in place there would not have been such an uproar in East Ridge over the idea of combining McBrien Elementary and East Ridge Elementary into a single new school.

And he said it would be "doing an injusttice" to Howard eighth graders left alone in the middle school without a full school program.

Jeffrey Wilson, another board member, said he was "not too thrilled about moving so many students around just to save a miniscule amount in the scope of the overall budget." The savings on closing the two schools was put at around $450,000.

George Ricks, longtime Howard School mainstay, said, "It is perceived - and I hope it's not correct" that the ultimate aim is to close Howard High School. Dr. Scales said that is inaccurate, and he said there have been recent meetings aimed at boosting the academic program at Howard.

Mr. Ricks said it was also perceived that the recommended cuts were aimed at "poor kids and black kids. We're taking the brunt of everything." He said some with influence were able to keep other smaller schools off the cut list.

Dr. Scales said saving money was not the main factor in the closing recommendations. He said there are too few high schoolers at 21st Century Academy for a viable program. He said the facility at Howard was formerly an elementary and is not suitable for a middle school. He said the Howard sixth and seventh graders would have better opportunities at East Lake Academy, Orchard Knob Middle School and Dalewood Middle School.

Dr. Scales and Finance Director Tommy Kranz said the county schools need to establish a new direction that will avert annual budget crises.

Mr. Kranz said there is "no one silver bullet" to do so, but he said moving away from smaller, older schools is one avenue.

He said if the county schools are to continue with the long-held reliance on small community schools, then a special funding source needs to be found to cover that expense.

Dr. Scales also recommended that East Lake Academy be established as a feeder school for the downtown elementary schools - Brown and Battle. He said it is planned that "Multiple Intelligence" program be implemented at East Lake Academy over a three-year period with teachers receiving training in the summers.

He recommended that the board work to consolidate McBrien and East Ridge elementary schools and also resolve the placement of the new Red Bank Middle School. Funds were set aside to build those two new schools several years ago, but they have not been started.

Mr. Kranz said there are about $248 million in deferred maintenance costs on school buildings or about $14 million a year over 20 years. He said closing old schools would reduce that amount.

He said the operation savings in closing 11 schools would be about $6.5 million a year.

But he said closing schools is very emotional. He said, "I am probably the most hated individual in this community."

Mr. Kranz said despite a host of cuts that there still remains a shortfall of $1.9 million.

He said it could come from the $18 million fund balance, but he said about $4 million is already slated to be taken from that area to cover such items as payouts for those taking early retirement and certain benefit costs. He said taking the other $2 million would drop it to $12 million.

Board members Wilson and Rhonda Thurman said there need to be continued talks with the Hamilton County Education Association on changes to benefit packages that Ms. Thurman said would be unheard of in the private business world.

Ms. Thurman said, "This is why America is broke. This is insane. We have to put this on the bargaining table."

She added, "I know almost everybody here is employed by the school system and you don't like to talk about this. But I represent the taxpayers, and I pay $1,100 a month for insurance myself."

Mr. Wilson questioned the practice of allowing retirees to continue to get county school insurance even after taking another job elsewhere. He said that was just helping out the new employer. He said he would rather pay school employees a higher salary than have that benefit.

Mr. Kranz said of the portion of the 200 retirees this year who are eligible for accrued vacation leave that the cost might be up to $300,000. Of the number, 130 are teachers and would not be eligible for that benefit because they are not 12-month employees.

The final budget presentation is to be at a special session on April 2.

A comprehensive facility report and discussion will be April 14. Officials said, "The primary purpose will be to identify potential savings from facilities for fiscal year 2011 and beyond."

The budget is to be adopted on April 29.