BUTLER TWP — With Butler School District opening a special needs school of its own this fall, the Clarence Brown Community School faces an uncertain future.

The school has offered intensive emotional and behavioral support programs at its Pittsburgh Pike Road building for more than 40 years, serving students from Butler County and beyond. Students from as far as AC Valley, Armstrong and Franklin school districts attend.

It will remain open for now, even though enrollment for next school year is anticipated to drop by almost half.

“It’s mostly a result of Butler pulling their students back,” said Toby Woodward, director of special education at Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV. “They utilized that program quite a bit. And so they are planning on sending their students to the Center Avenue program. And then we had a large group graduating this year as well.”

There are 25 students enrolled at the school. About 10 from Butler who were sent to Clarence Brown last year now will attend the new district program at the Center Avenue school. Another 10 students graduated from Clarence Brown School in June.

Before this year, enrollment had been on a slight decline.

Clarence Brown is unique in its ownership. While the MIU IV runs classes and staffs the building, five Butler County school districts — Karns City, Mars, Moniteau, Seneca Valley and South Butler — own the building and maintain it.

Its education budget is $1.6 million per year; it also has a separate operating budget.

Although there have been talks of the school closing, the joint operating committee members of those school districts decided to keep Clarence Brown open for now.

“There’s always talk,” said Wayde Killmeyer, MIU IV executive director. “But the five districts that own the building have committed to continuing, at least for the coming year, and we hope, beyond. Everybody is very happy with the program there.”

He continued, “The decisions as to the continuation of those programs, it all comes down to the decisions of the joint operating committee. As long as they desire that program to remain in place, it will remain in place.”

With fewer students, the school will be running with a consolidated staff. Some MIU IV instructors and staff have been reassigned to other buildings, while others have retired.

In addition to the enrollment issues is the status of the building itself. Maintenance-related costs with plumbing and roofing have been costly, and the five school districts divide those costs among themselves.

One of the school’s joint operating committee members, Deb Miller, a board member at the South Butler School District, said serving at Clarence Brown has been an eye-opening experience.

“It’s a very small population, so you get to see the kids over and over and see them growing up a little bit. It’s a totally different perspective than doing it for the school district,” she said.

There are still students from the five school districts attending Clarence Brown this fall, even though Butler has opened its new emotional support program to students in other districts.

Miller said competition would be futile if Butler is able to accept students at lower rates, but that hasn’t yet been determined.

“It’s a situation that’s being kind of forced on us. This is definitely a transition year,” she said.

But if all goes well with Butler’s plan, it might be something to consider for the future.

“This time next year, our kids more than likely will be looking at going to Center Avenue,” Miller said.

Dale Lumley, Butler superintendent, said the district is opening the special needs school in part because of a state Department of Education code to provide the “least restrictive environment” for students who have IEPs, or Individualized Education Programs. Programs that allow students to stay in their home district versus sending them elsewhere is valued in that code, Lumley said.

The district also anticipates saving more than $1 million in tuition fees that would fund students to attend other special needs schools, like Clarence Brown, St. Stephen’s in Zelienople and Pressley Ridge in Beaver Falls.

“It’s a high-quality program,” Killmeyer said of Clarence Brown. “We’re glad that people outside of the area recognize that and send their students to it. And in fact, it points to the high quality that even Butler is still going to send a student or so this coming year to participate in our program at Clarence Brown.”