Polson schools OK reconfiguring, again

For the second time in six weeks, the Polson school board unanimously approved reconfiguring the elementary district.

At a special meeting Thursday night, the board rescinded its earlier decision to reorganize the district's two elementary schools, then listened to public comment on the proposed reconfiguration. About 100 parents and community members attended the meeting, and several voiced their support for the board's decision or requested that trustees put the decision on hold for another year.

Under the reconfiguration, preschool through first-grade students will attend school at Cherry Valley Elementary, and second- through fourth-graders will go to Linderman Elementary. Both schools have housed kindergarten through fourth-grade students for more than a decade.

A week after the reconfiguration first passed May 29, 15 parents filed an injunction against the school board. The decision was made too hastily, they said, with too little planning and too little public input.

But board members said the reconfiguration was necessary in order to make room for full-day kindergarten. It would also make for less duplication and would foster a cohesive student group rather than rivalry between schools.

They had to act quickly, they said, because delays in the state Legislature gave them about a week to claim one-time, full-time kindergarten money for the 2007-2008 school year.

Negotiations between the school board and the parent plaintiffs broke down last month. As of Friday afternoon, the litigation is still on, school board chairwoman Theresa Taylor said.

"The last thing I heard is we're probably looking at a trial date in late September, early October," she said.

At Thursday's meeting, Superintendent Sue McCormick presented the district's vision for reconfiguration.

In a community the size of Polson, students should be with all of their peers throughout their entire public-school career, she said. All students would have the same opportunities, and "unhealthy competition" between the two schools would be eliminated.

Furthermore, if the district reorganized the schools, Cherry Valley and Linderman each could offer full-day kindergarten, she said. If the district maintained the status quo, it would have to add classrooms to Cherry Valley in order to offer an all-day kindergarten program there.

McCormick's presentation detailed the hoped-for results of reconfiguration but did not cover the nuts and bolts of how reorganization would take place - which is what many parents were hoping for.

"It's not a plan," Bob Nice told McCormick when he took his turn at the microphone. "I haven't seen a plan, and it's supposed to happen in a matter of weeks."

In an interview Friday, McCormick said there was a plan in place. A transition steering committee, comprising both elementary-school principals and district-level administrators, "had gotten a lot of work done prior to the injunction," she said.

Staff members are, for the most part, aware of where they'll be this fall, she said. All that remains is moving teachers into new classrooms and giving them time to plan curricula with other teachers in their grade level.

Less than half of those who spoke Thursday were concerned about reconfiguration. Most voiced their support for the proposal and the school board, and urged community members to allow trustees to do the jobs they've been appointed to do.

In a written comment submitted to the district office, Paul and Susan Brueggeman said that as public representatives, the school board should be allowed to make important decisions "without the micromanagement of the community."

Other supporters expressed their confidence in Polson's children and teachers to adapt to the move.

"Our teachers can make any reconfiguration work well," said Cheri Stobie, a fourth-grade teacher at Linderman.

Cindy Templer agreed.

"You know that kids are resilient, and so are teachers," she said. "And they'll make it work."

Some wanted to know if trustees had considered any other options.

"There are always alternatives," Cesar Hernandez, one of the parent plaintiffs, told the trustees. "I think you, as a board, should demand some alternatives."

Drew Hanson, a first- and second-grade teacher at Cherry Valley, asked the board to consider keeping second-graders with the lower grades instead of putting them with upper-elementary students. Developmentally, second-graders are closer to first-graders than third-grade students, he said.

The board did briefly consider that option, Taylor said Friday. If the second-graders were grouped with the younger students, they'd have to go to Linderman, she said: There is no room at Cherry Valley for all of those students.

The trouble with that move, Taylor added, is that "Cherry Valley was built and designed to be a lower-elementary building," with low sinks and drinking fountains and classrooms with their own restrooms - a must for the district's youngest students, she said.

Most who spoke against reconfiguration simply wanted the board to consider all the options for a longer period of time and to seek more public input.

The district knows the existing system has worked well, and it will work as well in the foreseeable future, Sarah Beck Smith said. "We don't know if we can rebuild two schools in eight weeks."

She and several others urged trustees to wait a year or two to plan.

"We're not opposed to change," she said. "We're opposed to change without sufficient information and a solid plan."

Board members, however, said they had enough information and confidence in administrators to support the proposal. Reconfiguration makes sense, they said.

"The bottom line is we have space for full-day kindergarten if we reconfigure the schools," trustee Kim Maloney said. "A year isn't going to make a difference."

Waiting a year would deny one more class the option of all-day kindergarten, she added.

If the plan doesn't work, it can always be readjusted in the future, trustee Vernon Finley pointed out.

"Let students adjust as we go," he said. "Decide how it's best as you're going along and make decisions based on that."

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com