It’s official: Eureka and Excelsior elementary schools will close in the fall of 2009. But it might not be the last word on the fate of facilities in the nine-school Eureka Union School District.

Trustees on Tuesday approved a laundry list of initiatives aimed at shoring up finances and revamping educational delivery. The list of 10 proposals, recommended by a district long term planning committee, included moving forward with charter school development, broadening the foreign-language program, and focusing on global and “interdisciplinary” learning.

The action follows months of deliberation by the committee, which was charged with investigating ways to improve education while eeking out cost savings as the district struggles with declining enrollment. Had the district not made dramatic changes, it ran the risk of becoming insolvent.

“This is not the culmination, this is part of Phase 2 of that process,” board president Jerri Davis said of the changes.

Under the closure plan approved Tuesday, Eureka School in Granite Bay and Excelsior School in Roseville, both of which serve students in fourth- through sixth-grade, will close. Beginning in 2009, students who would attend those schools will instead attend the schools’ current kindergarten- through third-grade feeder schools – Greenhills and Maidu, respectively. Both schools will receive additional portable classrooms to handle the increased population.

The district expects to save about $900,000 a year from the closures, and will lease out the sites to bring in additional revenue.

All existing schools will operate on a kindergarten- through fifth-grade, and sixth- through eighth-grade format, replacing the current K-3, 4-6, 7-8 makeup. The dual-campus Ridgeview/Oakhills schools will also be combined into one school serving grades K-5.

Trustees rejected a proposal that would have sent about 140 students who live in the Greenhills attendance area to Maidu, citing disruption to families. That means the attendance boundaries for the enlarged Greenhills and Maidu schools will remain exactly as they are now. Ridgeview/Oakhills will also remain identical.

However, trustees included in their motion a request for district staff to develop a facilities plan to “look at the option of making Excelsior school a permanent K-5 facility.”

Board member Russ Nash said Excelsior is more centrally located than Maidu in relation to its student population, and would make more sense from a district transportation standpoint.

“Also, a lot of kids walk to Excelsior so that’s important to us,” he said Thursday. “But the problem is the footprint at Excelsior is just too small to add the extra (portable classroom buildings) we need.”

If the district continues to shrink, however, that problem would be largely alleviated, he said.

“Right now, we have no choice to close Excelsior and move kids to Maidu,” he added. “A few years down the road, we might reverse the schools.”

Davis said late this week the potential change would be part of a larger effort to identify best uses of all the district’s buildings, and would not happen for at least three years.

“We really do need to do an overall facilities plan that looks long term and looks at all of our facilities,” she said.

Board members unanimously approved each proposal separately, including one that gave the go-ahead for staff to complete an application to establish a charter school. Current Eureka Principal Heidi Dettwiller will oversee the charter school petition process, which will be presented to trustees in June.

Officials say the charter will serve a dual function, keeping parents from transferring children out of the district – perhaps to competing charters in neighboring areas – and also as an educational incubator where ideas could be tested and then incorporated at other district schools.

But not everyone is expressing enthusiasm for the idea.

Parent Michelle Curran asked trustees if community support was strong enough to support a charter.

“The vast majority of parents I’ve talked to are not enthusiastic,” she told trustees.

“We’ve heard everything from ‘a charter is an elitist organization’ to ‘how can my child get in?’” Davis responded. “Others are ready to sign up and get in line even though we don’t know what that charter’s going to be right now. The truth is, we really don’t have that much defined yet.”

That will have to wait for the petition, which will include more information about how the school will be funded and what its educational emphasis will be. For now, officials say the idea is for the school – which will operate under district auspices – to house about 200 students and stress multidisciplinary work and global perspectives, though it would not be aligned with a specific academic program such as International Baccalaureate. The petition is expected to be presented to trustees at their June 10 meeting.

Nash added at Tuesday’s meeting the charter should not be a financial drain.

“We need to try to do more things, but I think we agree it should be cost neutral,” he said.

Also among proposals approved Tuesday were:

n Creation of a special education committee to reevaluate program delivery;

n Increase awareness about the financial impact of non-sick absences;

n Develop a campaign to educate the community about the economic impact of a strong public school system. Officials say the effort could be the first step to changing negative attitudes toward a potential school bond.