A jMiddle school needed • The School Board has

A

jMiddle school needed

• The School Board has put the decisic^i on whether to build, ja middle school or expand the elementary school back in the * Board of Supervisors’ court. That is where the decision ^belongs, since it is essentially a political decision. j We hope the supervisors will elect to build a middle ; school. * I - The plan to build an extension onto the elementary school •calls for 17 additional classrooms. Five of these would be {needed to replace classes now taught in modular buildings. {This includes music and remedial and special education ^classes. Another three would be needed to provide regular {Classroom space for half of the classes now taught in {classrooms that have been divided. These are also remedial land special education classes. Two would be for remedial math {classes taught in what was once the teachers’ lounge. Two are {designated for speech therapy, now taught in former storage I spaces. One would be for art classes. ; Simple arithmetic shows that this uses 13 of the 17 additional classroom spaces, leaving at most four classrooms for expanding enrollment. One of these will be needed for next year’s kindergarten and another for the one expected in September, 1994. • On the other hand if a middle school is built for fifth through eighth grades, this would free up 10 regular Classrooms at the elementary school and the computer math lab. In addition these grades would presumably include some of the students requiring special education and remedial Classes with fewer such classrooms needed at the elementary fechdol. ; Of course some of these classrooms would also be needed to replace classes taught in modular classrooms, which are bnly supposed to be temporary, and some could be for remedial and special education classes, but this alternative peems to allow a lot more flexibility while keeping the Schools Smaller.

Another possible course would be to build a new elementary school and convert the existing elementary school Into a middle school. This quite possibly would not save much inoney for two reasons. The state requires larger classrooms jor kindergarten and has proposed to raise the size of the first grade rooms as well. Larger classrooms mean a larger building. *, Second, the state now requires that a middle school provide ways for students to explore vocational education. It would be difficult to retrofit the existing elementary school for thatjob.