The Bainbridge Island School District’s bombshell announcement that it is considering closing Commodore Options School — along with staff layoffs and program cuts — brought an anxious crowd to a special meeting earlier this week at Bainbridge High.

Parents demanded answers from district administrators about the looming threat of Commodore closing, and raised concerns over suggestions to carve up the popular options program and send students to other schools across the island.

The meeting came on the heels of a Feb. 17 announcement from District Superintendent Peter Bang-Knudsen that highlighted an impending budget crisis that may prompt budget cuts between $2.1 million and $3.2 million. That announcement, which came via a letter sent to families of schoolchildren as well as district staff, caught many on Bainbridge by surprise, as it came just two days after voters resoundingly approved tax levies for local schools that will gather $51.6 million over the next four years.

In the letter, the superintendent detailed two options currently being explored by the district to cut costs. Option One cited staff reductions and cuts to programs as the main methods for eliminating cost overruns.

Option Two proposed the closure of the Commodore building and sending its programs elsewhere.

According to Bang-Knudsen, the district will need to layoff personnel regardless of which option the district decides to pursue.

“We anticipate that we’re going to need to do some reduction in force or layoff notices, whether it’s Option One or Option Two,” Bang-Knudsen said.

Some of the parents who spoke, however, warned that shutting down Commodore would fatally harm the options program.

Sherri Wilson, the parent of two options students, likened that suggestion by the district to President Trump’s desire to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“It’s like repealing Obamacare and hoping something good happens,” Wilson said.

While officials have said moving pieces of the program to different schools may help the program grow, some at Monday’s meeting were skeptical of those promises.

“We would love to grow your program, it’s a fantastic program,” Wilson said. “The problem I think, is there’s a lot of research that shows that this idea of putting a small school within a larger school, destroys the smaller school.”

The nearly 2-hour-long meeting was arranged in a question-and-answer format, with an additional slideshow by Bang-Knudsen that explained the need for cutbacks. Reasons included the size of staff salaries, inadequate funding from the state and expectations of declining enrollment in island classrooms.

Ellen Wixtead, has three children in the school district, two of whom are in the Odyssey program. She recalled the last time district officials had pressed for the need to close schools because of fewer students, and how previous predictions of declining enrollment were wrong.

“The school configuration committee was put on hold in 2013 when the district experienced a surprise influx of 118 more students than projected,” Wixtead said.

“We know that enrollment projections are notoriously inaccurate,” Wixtead said.

“My question is, why are we making significant long term decisions about our programs, based on data we know is likely to be inaccurate?” she asked.

The query drew hearty applause from the audience of roughly 80 or so islanders.

Bang-Knudsen responded by conceding that in the past, enrollment projections had been inaccurate. The district, however, expects to bring in an expert around March, with the hope of more accurately forecasting enrollment numbers.

“I think it’s a really good question. What is happening right now with our enrollment, what are we projecting for next year?” Bang-Knudsen responded.

“We’re going to find out more from the demographer. But my hypothesis is: perhaps it’s difficult for young families, or families with children to move here. Overall, we’re seeing not as many kids as what we had last year,” Bang-Knudsen said.

The number of students is expected to drop by 94 next year, and with that, prompt a revenue loss of $600,000.

“At some point, I anticipate that Bainbridge Island’s student population will grow again,” Bang-Knudsen added. “It will grow at some point. We don’t know exactly when, but it will grow. I think the question is, right now, do we have the logistical opportunity to create space so that we can possibly grow a very popular and well-liked program?”

Heidi Watson asked what would happen to Commodore Principal ,Dave Shockley, and said she had heard he was already reassigned to another position within the district.

“It’s my understanding that Dave Shockley has already lost his job as principal of our school,” Watson said.

“Dave has not lost his job,” Bang-Knudsen replied.

“I have heard that he will no longer be our principal next year, that he has been reassigned,” Watson clarified.

“Dave is going to have more responsibilities; he is still going to be working with that community, though. But he’s also going to have responsibilities in terms of looking at some of the remodels that we’re doing and really looking at the opportunities for Eagle Harbor High School and how we are going to work with that community as well,” Bang-Knudsen responded.

Bang-Knudsen’s response left the crowd audibly annoyed. Options parent Kirsten Hytopoulos said the wording of the superintendent’s response fell far short of an acceptable answer.

“The way that Dr. Bang-Knudsen handled that question was really an uncomfortable and disturbing moment,” Hytopoulos said later.

“I think he was caught because on the one hand he was telling us we might possibly still look exactly the same next year, but then he was confronted with the fact that our principal will have other duties regardless,” she said.

According to Shockley, it’s too early to comment on whether he will remain as Commodore’s principal.

He did say he had discussed his future with the district with administrators, however.

“Right now, I think we’re so early in looking at Option One and Option Two, it’s way too early to say where things are going to settle,” Shockley said.

“If [the programs] are moved apart, there’s going to be a contingency for me to be doing something different. But if they stay together, then I would still be a principal,” Shockley said.

At the meeting, Bang-Knudsen emphasized that the district had not yet decided on any one course of action and that Monday’s meeting was the first conversation of many to come.

“One of the things I want to emphasize tonight is this is not about making promises or commitments, it’s about beginning a conversation,” Bang-Knudsen said.

School district officials will be holding a community information night to discuss the district’s budget problems on March 8, at 7 p.m. in the commons at Commodore.