Polson board restructures elementary schools

In a special meeting Tuesday night, the Polson school board unanimously approved reconfiguring the district's two elementary schools. Under the new plan, preschool through first-grade students will attend Cherry Valley Elementary School. Students in second through fourth grades will attend Linderman Elementary.

Currently, both schools house preschool through fourth-grade students.

Nearly 200 parents, teachers and community members attended the meeting, and more than 50 people provided testimony about the reconfiguration.

Maybe a quarter of those were in favor of the move, school board Chairwoman Theresa Taylor said. Nearly as many were neutral, supporting the decision if the children's best interests were met.

But about half the crowd opposed the reorganization, Taylor said, claiming the move is too much too soon.

Letters were sent home with students May 25, said Rosemary Hickey, who has a son in the second grade at Cherry Valley. It was the first time parents were told the board was considering a reconfiguration.

"Most parents weren't opposed or in favor [of the reorganization]," she said. "It's just that we had no information.

"We're concerned that they're not following due process in a decision of such magnitude."

Because of delays in the state Legislature, the speedy decision was beyond the district's control, Taylor said. The Polson school district has not received its general-fund budget numbers from the state; it just learned May 23 how much money it will receive from the state Office of Public Instruction to implement all-day kindergarten.

If the district wants to offer the all-day option next year, it has until June 1 to submit its application for that money, Taylor said.

The OPI Web site says the date isn't a hard-and-fast deadline. But when the district double-checked the date Wednesday, OPI told officials their application had to be turned in Friday, Taylor said.

All-day kindergarten was approved during the special session of the Montana Legislature, and one-time startup money was set aside for school districts across the state to use in implementing the program. Polson will receive $120,000 for the 2007-2008 school year.

That money will be used for minor maintenance at both schools to prepare for the shift in age groups. Additional staffing costs associated with the transition period, supply costs and improving libraries at both buildings will also be included in that money, Taylor said.

The district anticipates 113 new kindergarten students next year; teaching them all day will mean possibly hiring three more kindergarten teachers, she said.

"Small class sizes are a huge thing for us," she said. "We've worked hard to keep them that way."

The Board of Trustees had a lengthy discussion about whether to offer the all-day option next year, Taylor said.

"Quite frankly, the question that kept coming up was, why wouldn't we?" she said.

Some parents, however, think there should have been more discussion about that issue as well.

The Legislature talked about all-day kindergarten all session, Hickey said, adding that there should have been opportunities for public comment long before Tuesday's meeting.

"The staff has had no say, the parents have had no say, the PTA has had no say," she said. "This should have been going on all year. To put this on over Memorial Day weekend … I'm just amazed."

Schools have until 2012 to access the kindergarten startup funds. But many school districts think that tapping that money now is in the best interests of students and taxpayers, Taylor said.

School-funding formulas are based on each district's Average Number Belonging. Twice a year - in October and again in February - schools report the number of students in class that day. Those numbers are averaged to get each district's ANB, which is used to calculate how much state funding schools will receive the next school year.

All-day kindergarten will double the district's kindergarten ANB, Taylor said.

"That's a lot of money for school districts to say, 'I'm not going to access that this year,'" she said.

The biggest obstacle to giving students the option of all-day kindergarten wasn't money but lack of space. The board estimated implementing an extended day for kindergartners would require three additional classrooms, which the district didn't have.

"To myself and to the other trustees, it seemed like a good time to reconfigure," Taylor said.

It's not the first time Polson has shuffled its elementary students between schools. Until about 12 years ago, kindergarten, first and second grades were at one school, and grades three through five were at another. When the district built a new middle school, fifth-graders moved there, and the elementary schools became kindergarten through fourth grade.

That decision occurred after a year of debate and public input, Taylor said. Seventy percent of the comments the school board received at that time opposed the reconfiguration. The board was similarly divided but ultimately decided in favor of the change.

Now, many families regard one school or the other as their "neighborhood school" - a misnomer, Taylor said, especially when the buildings are only about six blocks apart.

Parents have been able to choose which school their children attend, she said, and it's not uncommon for next-door neighbors to attend different schools.

"I like the idea that our kids in this small community will be together in the same schools from kindergarten through graduation," she said. "When they all hit fifth grade together … I think that is a horrendous challenge for our fifth-grade teachers to blend two schools with two different personalities into one cohesive grade.

"I really do think it will make it a better school district for our kids."

Some parents worry about what the move would do to next year's first- and fourth-graders, half of whom will switch schools for one year. Others say four schools are too many for students to attend throughout their elementary and secondary careers.

Then there's the issue about what parents will do with one young child at each school.

"This is a decision that's going to split families," Hickey said.

The district is considering releasing the younger students at Cherry Valley earlier than other schools to help parents coordinate picking up their children from school, Taylor said. A transition team is working out other details.

"In a perfect world, we would have one big elementary school, and everyone would be there," Taylor said. "But we do the best we can with the resources we have to provide quality education for these kids."

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