Well more than 100 parents, teachers and other Fall Creek Elementary School supporters crowded into the Ithaca City School District board room Tuesday night to oppose a proposed cost-saving move to close the school.

The district faces a $3.5 million budget gap, thanks to a reduction in state aid and increasing contract costs, and board members said drastic measures are needed to stay solvent. Last week, Superintendent Judith Pastel suggested the board investigate possible savings by closing an elementary school.

Fall Creek is the smallest of the eight elementary schools and so most easily absorbed into others, she said at a budget workshop last Tuesday. A second part of the proposal would move all district pre-kindergarten classes to the Fall Creek building, and close district administrative offices in Danby, moving them to the building, too.

Even if the proposal comes to nothing, big changes are coming, board members said.

"The situation in the state is such that we basically have to say all options are on the table," board President Rob Ainslie said to the group overflowing into the hallway. "We are looking at raising class sizes across the district, decreasing programming and increasing taxes. Those are the three things we're looking at, and we are trying to limit the impact of those three negatives on the kids and taxpayers."

Board member Josh Bornstein said, "The crisis that we're all facing here and around the state is the kind of crisis that we may not recognize our school district next year. That's not just us -- that's our neighbors, too. These are big changes."

The Fall Creek Parent-Teacher Association presented a petition with 1,200 signatures in opposition. The closing plan was not on Tuesday's meeting agenda, and has not been officially submitted.

Fall Creek parent David Moreland said he was concerned the proposal would permanently establish the school as a pre-k center with no possibility of re-opening as an elementary school in better budget years.

"I'm concerned that closing Fall Creek might be a permanent solution to a temporary problem," Moreland said. "The bad news in Albany won't end overnight, but in two to three years, it may be better ... I hope that for next year you will consider other cuts that will be painful but are more easily restored" when the budget improves.

Other reasons cited to abandon the proposal: the relatively short length of time to prepare logistics before the district budget must be approved in April; the added cost of busing students to more distant schools; the logic of sending students to elementary schools that feed into DeWitt Middle when they are now districted to attend Boynton Middle School, which is in walking distance; problems presented of trying to make the building suitable for pre-k students, including facility requirements and staffing; and the cohesiveness of the neighborhood and history of the school.