The Hayfield School District will hear public opinion Monday about possibly closing the Brownsdale Elementary School.

“The meeting is a public hearing and the purpose of the public hearing is to gather information from interested constituents,” Hayfield School District Superintendent Belinda Selfors said. “It can be people from the community, it can be other interested people, … it’s just kind of an open forum for anyone who’s interested.”

The meeting will take place at 6 p.m. in the Brownsdale Elementary School gymnasium/cafeteria.

“This is part of the process to collect testimony regarding this proposal,” Selfors added.

The Hayfield Public Schools Board brought up the idea of closing the elementary school due to a number of things, including operating costs, capital expenses, facility needs, and decreasing enrollment trends. The board has looked at information about each thing, and Selfors said the district is at a point they cannot ignore many of the problems any longer.

“Now we’re at a critical juncture where we have to address those needs,” she said.

But no decision has been made as of yet, and Monday’s meeting will not be one of decision making.

“The big picture is that right now we have several things going on,” she said, pointing out one issue. “Our enrollment has been declining for several years.”

The board went back 13 years, and Selfors explained about 13 years ago there were about 950 students in the district, and now there are about 715, which is a 25 percent drop. She noted the Hayfield campus can hold about 1,000 students, and currently is housing just under 600. The Brownsdale campus currently holds about 120 students, including some kindergarten through second-graders, all the district’s third-graders, and some students in early childhood special education programs.

“The question is: Is it feasible to have all of the district’s students in one complex?” she said. “All of that has not been explored, it’s too preliminary to look at.”

A big problem with decreasing enrollment is it is not in the district’s hands. It could be a case of a bad economy or families not moving to the area.

“There’s all those things that aren’t controlled by the school but they still impact us,” Selfors said.

“Now were at kind of a place where, what do we need to do to be most efficient with our resources and meet the needs of our students and staff,” Selfors said.

The main thing to do now is either increase revenues or decrease expenses, according to Selfors. But closing the Brownsdale campus may not be the best route, which is what the board hopes to find out when getting the public opinion Monday.

“If the board doesn’t use this idea then we’ll have to figure out what else we could do,” she added.

She noted administration has not explored other options yet, as information has to be gathered before they can even fully explore closing the Brownsdale campus.

The Brownsdale campus was built in the 1950s as its own school, and consolidated with Hayfield Public Schools District sometime later.

“I just think it’s important for everyone to know that the board and the staff at the school are focused on doing what’s best for all students attending Hayfield Public Schools,” Selfors said.

For more information about the process, visit http://hayfield.k12.mn.us/public-hearing/.