Photos by Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times

Curt Baker (center), deputy superintendent of Roanoke city schools, speaks during a Roanoke School Board meeting Tuesday evening at the School Administration Building.

Superintendent Rita Bishop (left) speaks with people attending Tuesday's school board meeting.

The Roanoke School Board voted Tuesday to close William Ruffner Middle School and Raleigh Court Elementary School next year in an effort to save $3 million and help alleviate the school system's financial crisis. Students from the two closed schools will be dispersed to neighboring schools.

Board members split 4-3 over the plan, with three board members saying they preferred an alternative proposal that would have sent students from Woodrow Wilson Middle School to James Madison Middle School and moved students from Fishburn Park and Raleigh Court elementary schools into the Woodrow Wilson building. But the board majority voted for the less disruptive plan, although several members said deciding between the two alternatives had been agonizing.

"It was a really tough decision. I kept going back and forth as late as this afternoon," said board member Suzanne Moore, who joined Courtney Penn, Lori Vaught and Mae Huff in voting for the proposal.

Tuesday's vote brings to four the number of Roanoke schools that the board has closed in the past year. The board voted last year to close Forest Park Elementary School and earlier this year to shutter Oakland Intermediate School to make room for alternative programs.

The plan would send Raleigh Court students to other schools based on where they live, a slight change from the original proposal floated earlier this month, which would have split students based on grade level. Moore, one of the architects of the revised plan, said the change was in response to parents who did not want to send siblings to different elementary schools.

"We kept hearing from the public that they wanted to keep people together," she said.

School officials discussed closing schools in community meetings during the past few weeks as part of an effort to plug a $16 million hole in the budget. Officials have also discussed trimming instructional programs, privatizing the transportation system, freezing wages and laying off up to 100 teachers. It remains to be seen how the Obama administration's stimulus package will affect the school system's spending plan, but officials have warned that any new federal money would only defer difficult decisions by a year or two.

Under the adopted plan, most of Raleigh Court's students would end up at either Grandin Court or Fishburn Park elementaries, bringing them close to their maximum capacity. Ruffner students would go to Breckinridge and Lucy Addison middle schools.

Ruffner Principal Melva Belcher, who attended the meeting, said she appreciated the administration's efforts.

"I think they've made the best decision for the future," she said.

The alternative school closing proposal considered Tuesday would have created a 573-student elementary school in the Woodrow Wilson building and a 900-student middle school at James Madison. It also would have annexed the Fishburn Park building into James Madison and used it to create a special sixth-grade wing.

Board members supported the idea of a sixth-grade academy, which could help students navigate a difficult year of transition, but the majority on the board argued that such a program could be put in place later, after a more thorough study.

"Let's not be disruptive next year in a way that we may overreach," Penn said.

Board Chairman David Carson replied that he would prefer the school system implement all its major changes at the same time.

"Let's get to where we are going, and let's get to it and let's get it done now."

Board member Jason Bingham agreed.

"Today is the day to make the move," he said.

School officials also are considering redrawing the city's attendance areas, a radical shift in a city where children still attend school based on a plan drawn up by a court in 1971 to desegregate the school system. The board has said it intends to hold public meetings on the matter next month before making a decision in April.

Despite the magnitude of the proposals, Superintendent Rita Bishop vowed to make any change as seamless as possible.

"We'll be ready the first day of school, and we will deliver a better educational product on September 1 than we are delivering right now," she said.