We appreciate that the Rapid City School Board has decided not to close Horace Mann Elementary School. It was unnecessarily sudden news for parents of students in the district, given that the superintendent, business manager and the board essentially broadsided this district with its late admission that it was in a financial crisis. This will at least give the district more time to assess its student population and its facility needs.

As it stood, the small school in north Rapid City, with its student body of about 200 students, would have had less than two weeks to adjust to the loss the school before year's end.

Board members said that wasn't right at their May 15 meeting and voted to keep Horace Mann open for 2008-09. We agree that the burden imposed on the school's students, staff and families by an untimely emergency declaration that would have allowed closure of the school this year was simply too much to ask. Of course, facing a room full of frustrated Horace Mann parents may have shaped some of the board members' decision.

The school board cut about $2.63 million from the 2008-09 school budget last week, but still it must find between $4 million and $6 million to keep its general reserve fund out of the red in coming years. Closing Horace Mann Elementary would save an estimated $456,000, so this school and others which are not at capacity may still be targeted for closure in the coming years.

The north and central parts of Rapid City have had more than their fair share of school closings in the past decade, with E.B. Bergquist, Garfield and Lincoln elementary schools shut down under the current administration. While the beautiful new facility at General Beadle ameliorates some of those losses for the north Rapid community, another closure is a disproportionate burden for families there to bear. Additionally, any closure plan that would bus a majority of Horace Mann students to a Black Hawk school 9 miles away seems like a poor solution, especially for any low-income families who would face additional transportation costs if they lived in a neighborhood a great distance from their children's school.

Given the district's ongoing budget problems and its student demographics, Horace Mann may not be able to escape a closure vote at some point in the future.

If and when it can't, the school district should look at redrawing its school boundaries and enrollments so that the burden of busing isn't added to a Horace Mann closure.