The Maplewood school board is considering whether or not to consolidate and close the elementary school. 

An informational meeting was held Wednesday night so the school board could present the community with the facts on why the question is being asked.

Superintendent Perry Nicholas says they have been thinking about this decision since 2010 and it is all based purely on enrollment data. He says they've been losing students every year since 2000.

"Those are real numbers, those are true numbers and they scare us. We lost 447 kids from the time this district decided to reconfigure these buildings," he said.

In the proposal, Nicholas says no teaching staff would be cut although some non-teaching staff would be eliminated. 

K - 6th grade students would go to the middle school and 7th - 12th grade students would go to the high school. 

The school board says closing the elementary school would also project more than $330,000 in savings every year. 

When it came time for public input, there were a lot of questions including how the consolidation would affect class size. Would kids with special needs still get the attention they need and would any accommodations need to be made at the schools. 

Melanie Shipman was agitated that other options weren't presented when she said that was promised at previous board meetings. Tami Morrison took her time to thank the board for their diligence in doing the research and giving the community all the information.

"I just appreciate that you've really thought this through, that you're not cutting teaching staff. I'm so proud to be from Maplewood, I'm an alumni, we live here, we have a little girl who is going to go here someday and I'm just really grateful for all that you've done in doing this thoughtfully, so thank you," said Morrison.

The school board says they will not make a decision one way or another until after the first of the year.