$200,000 too much for advice

A consultant's report to the Douglas County School Board on Tuesday night raised more questions than it answered.

A proposal to convert one of the Valley's two middle schools into some sort of administrative space left us scratching our heads.

Frankly the point of having a consultant conduct the facilities plan was to provide a school board battered by the fight over closing Kingsbury Middle School some political cover from the prospect of having to close another school.

Instead, consultants appear to have stripped the landscape bare and left school board members not only having to make their own decisions on the schools but also having to explain to voters why they paid outsiders $200,000 to tell them it was time for ninth-graders to move back to Douglas High.

This is not the first time Douglas County has had to prepare a plan to survive a decade.

The plan that got the school district through the last 18 years was a collaboration between a citizen's committee and the district staff.

We believe building out Pinon Hills Elementary and retrofitting the high school to welcome back its freshman class should be priorities of the plan. Beyond that, maintain the schools in preparation for the wave of students that will one day return.

That'll be $200,000, please.