The subcommittee, which is made up of township residents, will meet Tuesday to develop the presentation it will make to the Lawrence Township Board of Education in December.
By: Lea Kahn
To reconfigure or not to reconfigure. That is the question before the school district’s Facilities Advisory Committee.
A subcommittee of the group has been grappling with whether to change the grade makeup of the four elementary schools and the intermediate school as a part of the overall facilities presentation that the committee is preparing.
The subcommittee, which is made up of township residents, will meet Tuesday to develop the presentation it will make to the Lawrence Township Board of Education in December.
Currently, the four elementary schools handle grades K-3. Students in grades 4-6 attend the Lawrence Intermediate School. Students in grades 7-8 attend Lawrence Middle School.
But the subcommittee is toying with the idea of moving the grades around to cope with overcrowding at LIS. The intermediate school was designed to handle about 600 students, but there are 950 students currently enrolled.
One proposal is to use the four elementary schools and the intermediate school to accommodate students in grades K-5. Another proposal is to leave the four elementary schools alone, and make the intermediate school a fourth- and fifth-grade school.
But regardless of the decision, construction likely would be needed at the four elementary schools to handle growing enrollments and to meet the school board’s goal of reducing class size to 15 students.
The subcommittee favors moving sixth-graders from the intermediate school to the middle school. The middle school would house sixth- through eighth-graders, and the intermediate school would have fourth- and fifth-graders.
But more classrooms would be needed at the middle school. Moving the sixth-graders out of the intermediate school, however, would create about 10 or 11 empty classrooms. There are no proposals for what to do with those rooms.
Middle schools consisting of students in sixth through eighth grades are common, said Walter C. Woolley, director of strategic planning for the school district and the facilitator for the subcommittee.
There are academic reasons for moving the sixth-graders into the middle school, he said. The middle school has special rooms for science, art and music, which the intermediate school lacks. Classes likely would be more challenging, he said.
Also, students might have more opportunities to become involved in sports, he said. However, they would get the chance to play on an intramural sports team or an interscholastic sports team.
It is important to make sure that the school seems small, Dr. Woolley said. A large middle school of 900 students could be overwhelming to sixth-graders. One solution is to create a special sixth-grade wing.
Subcommittee members also raised the issue of busing middle school students and high school students on the same school bus, he said. But separate bus routes could be set up to avoid mixing them on the same bus.
Turning to the two proposals to disperse grades K-5 among the five schools, or to leave grades K-3 in the elementary schools and grades 4-5 at the intermediate school the subcommittee considered the advantages and challenges of both options.
If the elementary schools were reconfigured for grades K-5, it would allow more students to take on leadership roles, Dr. Woolley said. If there are five K-5 schools and five student councils, there would be more opportunities for children to become the president of the student council, for example. If there is one grade 4-5 school, then there can only be one student council president.
A grade K-5 configuration means there would be fewer transitions from school to school, Dr. Woolley said.
Also, six years in one school could help build stronger school and family relationships. Parents take tremendous pride in their children’s elementary school, he said. All of the teachers would get to know the students in the school.
But creating five K-5 schools would mean redistricting would have to occur, he said. The sending areas for each school would have to be revised. Students who presently attend one elementary school might be moved to another one, he said.
And converting the intermediate school into a K-5 school could be costly, especially if it is divided into two elementary schools, Dr. Woolley said. Water fountains and bathrooms would have to be scaled down for the younger children, for example.
To leave the school configuration as it exists with four K-3 schools and one grade 4-5 intermediate school would have fewer overall impacts, Dr. Woolley said. There would be virtually no changes for the students.