Great Meadows Regional School District will shuffle grades between schools next year

Wednesday, January 20, 2010
By STEPHEN J. NOVAK
The Express-Times

INDEPENDENCE TWP. | The Great Meadows Regional School Board had two decisions to make during its meeting Tuesday. The first was whether to realign the district. The second was how.

The answer to the first question was yes, in a 7-2 vote.

To the second: Central School in Independence will house kindergarten through second grade; Liberty School in neighboring Liberty Township will take on grades three through five. The changes are expected to go into effect next school year.

Liberty and Central schools are now attended by kindergarteners through fifth-graders in their respective towns. The two-township district also has Great Meadows Regional Middle School in Independence.

The vote settled months of discussion among district officials. An ad hoc committee had recommended combining similar grade levels in the district's three schools to help alleviate overcrowding at one and underuse at another.

"A lot of thought went into the rationale as to who goes where," said board President Jennifer Cassini.

School administrators have presented pros and cons of different options, and residents have thrown in their opinions over several meetings on the long-discussed matter.

Forty to 50 residents gathered in the middle school cafeteria to hear the board's decision. Before the vote, some questioned how thoroughly the issue was considered.

Dissent in vote

The vote was not a popular one among everyone. Board members Joe Mahal and William Vonder Haar voted against both questions. After the first vote, Vonder Haar proposed switching the roles of Central and Liberty schools, but the motion was not seconded.

The Liberty Township Committee sent a three-page letter to the school board asking that the vote be postponed indefinitely. Liberty Committeeman Dan Grover told the board it was the committee's feeling that there were still details that have not been adequately addressed.

"On one hand, this might be a very good idea. On the other hand, this could be a very bad idea," Grover said. "There's a lot more of this issue that needs to be discussed."

Grover's sentiments were reflected in the comments of other residents, who raised concerns ranging from the effects on taxpayers to how students could adjust to bathrooms in different schools. One woman said children might be separated from friends or siblings.

"I really don't think you guys have answers on everything like some of the details," she said.

Alternatives dismissed

Central School is at 148 percent capacity, officials have said. They have also said that getting Central School down to 116 percent capacity -- which will happen in September -- is much more manageable for the facility.

The decision on how to reorganize was based off of the recommendation of Superintendent Tim Frederiks.

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. A second scenario considered would have reversed the roles of Central and Liberty in the arrangement.

A third option briefly considered was to move the fifth grade from one school to the middle school. That was scrapped after officials decided the fifth-grade program would be too disjointed between schools, and the added students would have required another administrator at the middle school.

"We didn't think that was effective," Frederiks said.