The OEA defines severely under-enrolled schools as using less than 80 percent of building capacity. The problem is most prevalent in middle schools, according to the office’s research. Severe over-enrollment — that’s schools at 130 percent capacity or more — is much rarer and mostly occurs among high schools.
Combining schools is not feasible in the vast majority of cases, especially in rural areas due to geography and transportation, but OEA research analyst Chris Riley said some schools do show potential.
“We identified apparent feasibility of consolidation in 15 elementary, 25 middle, and 11 high schools,” he told lawmaker this week…