West Lebanon -- After more than three hours of impassioned public debate last night, a divided Lebanon School Board voted to keep its school consolidation plan on course, rejecting an alternate plan brought forward by a board member last week.

Last night's vote to affirm the existing consolidation was 5-4, with board members Mary Jane Thibodeau, Susan Donnelly, Beth White, Laura Dykstra and Jeff Peavey voting in favor. Andy White, Hank Tenney, Al Patterson and Barbara Parker voted against it.

Board members who stuck with the plan to close School Street School and Sacred Heart School at the end of the current school year argued it is in the best interest of students.

Board members Donnelly and Thibodeau were the two most outspoken in favor of moving ahead with consolidation as planned.

“That is the best educationally for our students. The fact that we can do this and save money is a big bonus,” Thibodeau said.Those who voted the other way supported a board member Andy White's proposal to close just one of the small elementary schools now, arguing that the alternate plan would save the district more money than the consolidation plan initially accepted by the board in January.

Elementary school principals testified to the School Board last night, and were of different opinions about moving ahead with closing School Street and Sacred Heart.

Scott Bouranis, who serves as principal at both schools slated to close, said he thought the School Board had made a mistake in pushing for the consolidation this year instead of focusing on winning support for a new middle school building to replace the overcrowded and decrepit junior high.

Next fall, Bouranis will be principal of Hanover Street School, where grades K-4 from the Lebanon side of the city would attend classes under the consolidation plan.

Hanover Street School principal Andrew Mellow has been named as the new principal of the junior high.

Last night, he said the thought that above all else, parents and teachers needed a clear answer about what was to happen.

“A final decision needs to be made so that we can move ahead with definite plans,” he said.The Mount Lebanon Elementary School gymnasium was packed with concerned parents for last night's meeting, and at the insistence of some board members, most of the meeting was given to hearing their comments and questions.

Many raised concerns about the cost of the consolidation plan, and whether it would really produce the roughly $900,000 to $1 million in savings that district officials claimed it would.

Superintendent Michael Harris insisted that all but one of the costs related to closing School Street and Sacred Heart and redistributing elementary students among the district's other three elementary schools were figured into the $32.7 million 2009-10 school budget approved by Lebanon voters last month, which was about $900,000 less than the default budget.

Harris said, however, that the district's initially estimated cost of $185,000 for putting in an elevator at Seminary Hill School, which would house grades 5-6 under the consolidation plan, was $125,000 too low. According to Harris, the latest estimate given by contractor Trumbull-Nelson of Hanover came in at $310,000.

Some board members argued that Seminary Hill needs an elevator regardless of the consolidation plan.