Board rejects idea of 5th-6th, 7th-8th grade buildings

An article by Leslie Shepard-Owsley    No Comments

During a board meeting held Monday, Jan. 24, the Huron Valley Schools Board of Education shot down the possibility of creating two fifth-through-sixth-grade middle school buildings along with two seventh-through-eighth-grade buildings while continuing deliberations on whether a middle school should close.

The school board visited the Hartland School District — which is currently configured with fifth-through-sixth-grade buildings and seventh-through-eighth-grade buildings — prior to making its decision in tandem with researching other districts that have the same configuration.

“We found these districts have a lower at-risk population than ours and we feel that would be a detriment,” said Board of Education President Lisa Blackwell.

She also noted that these districts all fed into one high school unlike Huron Valley, which funnels students into two, Lakeland and Milford high schools.

“We have to split students between the two so it’s not logistically possible,” Blackwell said.

Transportation was also a deciding factor.

“We have to bus kids over 102 square miles and these kids would be on the bus too long and it would be way too expensive for our district,” Blackwell said.

The board is still considering two other options: Either the new middle school option of consolidating a fifth-through-eighth-grade middle school or possibly closing either Muir or Highland middle schools.

If the board opts to implement the fifth-through-eighth-grade configuration, it would most likely require redistricting and shuttering an elementary, either Brooks or Oxbow, due to size capacity.

“It would have to be one of these on the east side (of the district) because they’re smaller compared to the larger ones on the west side,” Blackwell said.

Brooks has a capacity of 364 students while Oxbow has a capacity of 532. The forecast for five years down the road indicates that Brooks’ current enrollment of 329 would fall to 288, whereas Oxbow’s enrollment of 396 would drop to 366.

District administration is still researching what it would mean to close Highland or Muir. Oak Valley and White Lake middle schools were recently removed from possible elimination.

Each of the remaining scenarios would still result in a teaming approach that the district plans to move to as part of a 21st century educational effort where students work closely with four teachers who collaborate together. The ideal number of students to pull that off is between 700 and 720.

If students were divided between the four middle school buildings currently in operation, enrollment would be estimated around 500, putting each of them at 65 percent capacity.

If a middle school were to close, the district would realize about $800,000 in annual savings. However, if an elementary were to close, the savings would be about $400,000. Both scenarios would provide the district with significant savings in the face of a $4.1 million deficit projected for 2010-11 and another $3.9 million shortfall in 2012.

However, Blackwell said an impending closure is not about the money, but streamlining instruction.

“It’s never been about the money, and in fact we’ve talked little about it. Rather, it’s about instruction,” she said.

The board will reconvene on Thursday, Feb. 3 for a board meeting after receiving more information from the administration. The board anticipates rendering a final decision at its 7 p.m. Feb. 17 meeting at Lakeland High School.