The school district will hold a meeting on the plan 7 p.m. July 11 at the LIS library.
By:Lea Kahn Staff Writer
School district officials are exploring a plan to split the Lawrence Intermediate School into a school-within-a-school in an effort to help ease the transition from elementary school to the intermediate school, according to Superintendent of Schools Philip Meara.
The goal is to ease the transition by creating a smaller school, Mr. Meara said. Under the proposals, fourth-graders would be separated from the fifth- and sixth-graders by placing the younger students in their own wing at LIS, off Eggert Crossing Road, he said.
The school board informally gave Mr. Meara permission to investigate the school-within-a-school concept following a closed meeting to discuss personnel issues after its June 14 meeting.
School district officials are concerned about elementary school students’ transition to the intermediate school, school board President Laura Waters said. Lawrence students do well in elementary school, but standardized test results show that they begin to experience difficulty when they reach fourth grade, she said.
"This is a way to address that concern," Ms. Waters said. "This will let us help them with the transition. There is more and more educational research that points to the value of small learning communities."
While the school board supports the concept, it is far from becoming a reality, Mr. Meara said. The school board must vote to approve the plan, he said, adding that a formal resolution could be presented to the board as soon as the July 12 meeting.
The proposal to research dividing LIS into two schools will be explored over the next few weeks, Mr. Meara said, adding that the administration is seeking LIS staff members’ views and reaction.
In an effort to gain parental and community input on the proposal, school district officials plan to hold a meeting July 11 at 7 p.m. in the LIS library, Mr. Meara said. The results of the meeting will be presented at the board’s monthly meeting July 12, he said.
In the meantime, district officials, including Business Administrator Thomas Eldridge, Director of Personnel Rebecca Gold and Assistant Superintendent Crystal Lovell, will meet with LIS staff to discuss the how the proposal will affect financial, personnel and curriculum decisions, he said.
If the plan is approved by the school board, two principals would have to be hired one for the fourth-grade school, and one for the grades 5-6 school, he said. LIS has two assistant principals, but one of the two submitted his resignation in March. The district could convert the assistant principal’s job into a principal’s job, he said. The salary difference is about $20,000, he said.
Mr. Meara pointed out that there is precedent in the Lawrence School District for a fourth-grade school. In the 1990s, the Eldridge Park School was an exclusively fourth-grade school. The school on Lawn Park Avenue now houses grades K-3.
"There has been a lot of research to support the investigation of dividing large schools into smaller schools," Mr. Meara said, noting that LIS has an enrollment of 876 students in grades 4-6. The elementary schools have enrollments of around 300 students apiece.
Mr. Meara said national research indicates that smaller schools allow teachers to become better acquainted with students and to offer a more personalized educational experience. Teachers may be able to address students’ different learning styles, he added.
The proposal to create a school-within-a-school grew out of the search for a principal to replace current LIS Principal Danita Ishibashi, who is going to be working with Ms. Lovell, Mr. Meara said. The school district also is seeking an assistant principal for LIS to replace Matthew Keller, whose resignation was accepted by the school board at its March 29 meeting. His resignation takes effect June 30.
Mr. Meara said many of the best candidates who sought to replace Ms. Ishibashi were dissuaded from taking the LIS principalship because of the large school size. The size of the school proved to be overwhelming to them, he said.
It is difficult to find an administrator who has worked in an intermediate school that has an enrollment of about 900 students, he said. Creating two smaller schools "opens the door" to many more candidates, he added.