FARMINGTON — RSU 9 Superintendent Tom Ward unveiled a proposal Tuesday to restructure six schools, a move that would bring sixth-graders to Mt. Blue Middle School and change grade levels at five elementary schools.
School board directors requested more details, including costs of the change and where classrooms would be located. They are set to act on the proposal at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 11, at the Presentation Forum at the Mt. Blue Campus on Seamon Road in Farmington.
Ward said he is open to suggestions on the proposal.
The restructuring proposes to change the middle school to serve grades six through eight instead of grades seven and eight.
The majority of middle schools in Maine serve grades six through eight, he said.
Restructuring the schools will ease overcrowding at the Mallett School in Farmington, the Cushing School in Wilton and the Cape Cod Hill School in New Sharon, Ward said. Mallett and Cushing schools are overcrowded by about 50 students each, and Cape Cod Hill is overcrowded by about 30 students, Ward told more than 60 people at the meeting.
Moving grade six students to the middle school in Farmington would allow them to potentially have access to more programming, including world language and allied arts, and opportunities for co-curricular and extracurricular activities, he said.
It would also provide more consistency in the curriculum, he said.
The sixth-grade students would not loop like the seventh- and eighth-graders do, Ward said. Looping is when students stay with the same teachers as they move up to another grade.
The middle school has the space for another grade and, with some modifications, more classrooms would be made.
The move would free spaces at the elementary schools for what they were intended, Ward said. By giving students the rooms they need, there is an improved school climate that is more conducive to learning, he said.
“When kids have the space they need, discipline (problems) decrease,” he said.
The proposal would:
* Move the third grade at Mallett School to the Cascade Brook School in Farmington. Mallett School would have pre-kindergarten through second grade and Cascade Brook would have third through fifth grades. In the next school year, current second- and third-graders would move from Mallett School to Cascade Brook.
* Move sixth-graders from Cascade Brook School to the middle school.
* Either move the prekindergarten class or the second grade at Cushing School in Wilton to Academy Hill School, also in Wilton. Cushing would have either kindergarten through first grade, or kindergarten through second grade. Academy Hill School would have either second through fifth grades or third through fifth grades and pre-kindergarten.
* Move sixth-graders at Academy Hill School to the middle school.
* Move sixth-graders from Cape Cod Hill School to the middle school. Cape Cod Hill would have prekindergarten through fifth grade.
Among the costs associated with the changes are $5,500 for modifications at the the middle school and $10,000 to improve technology. Potential staffing needs would be additional two-fifths music position, half-time positions for physical education/health and guidance, and a half-time assistant principal/athletic director, all at the middle school.
The assistant principal/athletic director would become a full-time position; it’s now half-time. There would also be a possible extra sixth grade teacher.
Whenever there is a construction project, a planning study is done, Ward said. The Mallett School was built in 2011 and the high school renovation/addition project was done in three phases and completed in 2013. The report shows that the student numbers stay the same from 2006 to 2016, he said.
What the state didn’t plan for was the number of students moving to the district, he said.
The district’s schools are attracting more people to move to the area, he said.
When questioned about how the sixth grade would be set up, Mt. Blue Middle School Principal Gary Oswald said there would be two groups, referred to as communities, with three teachers in each one.
There is no intent to overcrowd classrooms, Ward said. They would try to stick to 24 students per classroom but it could increase to 25, he said.
Parents like to keep children in hometown schools but what he’s hearing from the sixth-grade teachers is that sixth-graders are ready to move up to middle school, Ward said.
RSU 9 includes the towns of Chesterville, Farmington, Industry, New Sharon, New Vineyard, Starks, Temple, Vienna, Weld and Wilton.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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