BELLAIRE SCHOOL District officials are taking their case straight to the public. It is an approach that we endorse as it may be a last-ditch effort to save the school district as we currently know it.

Superintendent Tony Scott announced at Monday’s regular board of education meeting that a “State of the Schools” meeting will be held early in the new year.

The special session is designed to give the public a chance to learn about what the school district is facing and to provide some suggestions and thoughts on changes for the district.

The Jan. 5 meeting was necessitated by the defeat again of a 12.9-mill levy at the November ballot. The levy funds would have been used to help the school district erase a more than $3 million deficit which has placed it under state supervision.

Scott noted at Monday’s board meeting the “district is on the brink.” That is a perilous place in which to be perched.

The Bellaire superintendent is not making idle threats. Quite the opposite.

Scott worked passionately to gain levy passage, only to witness two lopsided losses.

The second ballot defeat will mean more cuts to an already financially carved up staff. Come this May those cuts will take place. Some 15 more teachers face the loss of their positions.

That is unfortunate as is the resultant negative impact it has on the district’s academic standing.

With two levy defeats and extensive cuts already executed, the Bellaire administration is taking the right approach in soliciting input from the district’s residents. They will play a major part in shaping the district’s fate, already having said quite clearly they want no part of a large levy.

The Jan. 5 meeting is now their turn to offer alternative methods to breathe life into a gasping school system. “The State of the Schools” meeting may prove a defining moment to a school district filled with both pride and money problems.