The Department of Education will add more detail to its report considering the closure of Likelike Elementary before taking the proposal to the community, after questions today from a Board of Education committee.

The committee had been asked to schedule a public hearing on the proposed consolidation.

Instead, the committee raised concerns about the quality of the department’s report, saying board members and the community need more information about how closing Likelike Elementary would affect student achievement and where money saved by shuttering the school would go.

The committee is expected to take up the issue again later this month, before the proposal heads to the full board.

At today’s Finance and Infrastructure Committee meeting, BOE member Brian De Lima called the department’s report considering the consolidation of Likelike Elementary "deficient" and "grossly lacking."

"People need to see how closing a school is going to benefit the rest of the students in all of those other schools," he said.

Board members also expressed interest in getting more information on the department’s strategy in eying schools for consolidation.