“We understand that there have been concerns regarding potential changes to our elementary school programs. And we wanted to take this opportunity to address these concerns,” the district said in the letter.
However, the district said it will conduct an enrollment study during the next school year to assess the needs of the community and to determine the best way to meet those needs. It said that would ensure programming continues to meet the needs of its students and families as the community grows.
The district in January and February held eight town hall meetings that were open to the public to unveil three new redistricting ideas the district could implement starting next school year to deal with enrollment imbalances and other issues.
The proposed ideas aimed to address an effective way to offer full-day and half-day kindergarten, create a collaborative preschool configuration model, equalize class sizes and increase support services for counseling, social work and nursing services, the district previously said. The changes also aimed to address an effective way to provide opportunities for teachers on assignments or as lead teachers, to seek additional Title 1 funding opportunities at schools not currently receiving it, and to plan for new residential housing growth.
Area residents and district staff listened to those options, then sounded off about how they felt about them via surveys.
School board President Dale Toadvine told this news outlet Tuesday the district felt parents needed more time to get ready for changes.
“We’re definitely going to have to do something in the near future because of all the building that’s going on in the area,” Toadvine said. “Right now, there’s over 800 home starts (throughout) the city and the township. That probably will come out to be close to 400 or 500 ... (new) children that’s going to be in our school district.
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Superintendent Laura Blessing told this news outlet she would provide an update to an enrollment study at a later date.
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