School board vote set for Great Meadows Regional School District realignment

Thursday, January 14, 2010
By STEPHEN J. NOVAK
The Express-Times

LIBERTY TWP. | The Great Meadows Regional School Board plans to decide next week on dividing classes in its lower grade schools by grade level rather than municipal borders.

An ad hoc committee recommends combining similar grade levels in the district's three schools to help alleviate overcrowding at one and underuse at another, officials said Wednesday. A board vote is scheduled Tuesday.

About 50 residents attended Wednesday's meeting in the Liberty School all-purpose room to comment on the potential change, which, if approved, would go into effect next school year.

School administrators presented pros and cons of different options. Superintendent Tim Frederiks called redistricting "the most conservative approach."

Great Meadows serves Liberty and Independence townships. Currently, the district has two neighborhood schools hosting kindergarten through fifth grade -- Liberty School in Liberty Township and Central School in Independence Township -- in addition to Great Meadows Regional Middle School in Independence.

No option would have gotten the Central School below 100 percent capacity, but each presented some benefits that could help spread the district's resources and ease the space crunch, officials have said.

Central School is at 148 percent capacity. School officials have said that getting Central School down to 116 percent capacity is much more manageable for the facility. Students could be moved to Liberty School, which is operating at 70 percent capacity.

Of the options presented in meetings last month, the one that Frederiks has said gave the "best numbers" -- meaning the most even distribution -- was a plan to turn Central into a kindergarten-through-second-grade school, have Liberty host grades third through fifth and the middle school handle grades sixth through eighth.

A second scenario reverses the roles of Central and Liberty in that arrangement.

"There will be a vote on realignment (Tuesday). If that vote passes, then we will vote directly after that on which school will be which," said board President Jennifer Cassini. "It's an important decision where we put the grades."

There were some differing opinions offered by residents. Some questioned transportation and classroom size. At least one person asked that the vote be postponed.

"I've always liked the idea of Liberty School being a small-town school," one man said. "This school is like a family here."

"I think a lot of the students will be fine with it," another man said, though he questioned how staffing changes would work. "All of a sudden there might be 10 new teachers in a school. That's a concern."