Need opinions, one large elementary or several small

[McKelly]

Our school district is trying to decide whether to build one large elementary school for all the kids in the school district, or to continue the present way, with several smaller schools and just make improvements on the existing ones. Any opinions on this, pros and cons as to one or the other?

I was asked as a parent to sit on a board and discuss this, and am just trying to go into the meeting prepared by hearing all sides.

Thanks for any insight/opinions you might have.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

How many kids are we talking?

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

I guess it depends on how large the "large" school would be. If it is going to be a huge magnet, I'd go for the several smaller schools option.

 

[golfgal]

Tough one, one school is less expensive to operate then several small schools which is always a consideration. Small schools tend to promote more of a community but there are ways around that in a larger school too. I don't know that this would be a committee I would do well on because I would be arguing both sides of the street .

 

[Wishing on a star]

No question about it...

Smaller schools....

I would not want my elementary school aged child bussed into a large 'high-school' type of environment. They would just 'a number'.

To me, any savings is not even a consideration at all.
Only the children.

 

[dcgrumpy]

like others have said what are the number of students for each option?

 

[lindalinda]

I would say several small every time. It's probably more expensive but having a small school close to home has a lot of benefits. Teachers and administration are more likely to be personlly involved with the children. Even parents are more likely to know the children from their neighborhoods and the personal involvement lends itself to a nutruring environment.

 

[McKelly]

We are talking about combining four elementary schools 4K-5, into one larger school district. Each school is at about 300-400, so I would say we are talking about approximately 1400 kids.

 

[cats7494]

I would say several small ones. That is how my dd's school is set up.
I completely agree with lindalinda's post. It is a nice community and the teachers, staff, and administration know all of the kids by first name.
The parents have a better chance at knowing all of the kids too....
Much better for the kids, imo.

 

[EthansMom]

Our school district has been fighting over this same issue for the last several years -- we're at a stalemate.

We have 2 very small towns and one larger town that each has it's own gradeschool. Our superintendant and the school board members from the larger town want to build one large grade school in the larger town and bus the students from the two smaller towns. This is being marketed to voters as a cheaper alternative to remodeling all three current grade schools. However, the budget for building one large grade school does not include any associated cost for renovating and turning our current schools over to another purpose.

In the case of our small town, the grade school is one of only a handful of buildings in the center of town (well, a little village, really). The school is not zoned for commercial use, nor is there any consumer base to keep much of a commercial enterprise going. Tearing the school down would literally leave a gap in the town. Regardless of the school board's desires, our town needs to renovate the school. Many of the more necessary repairs are entirely due to the school board not performing maintenance all along.

The school board's plan to remodel/renovate the three existing grades schools has some major flaws, however, that make it unpalatable to voters. The board has done little to mitigate expenses in the projected budgets -- proposed changes seriously exceed the needs. Additionally, the school board has done very little to plan how they would implement remodeling ALL THREE grade schools at one time.

So far, we've voted a handful of times and I think we'll be voting again soon on this matter.

In all likelihood, my DD2.5 will be in middle school before any remodeling or building is approved, designed, funded, and built.

 

[AKLRULZ]

I honestly don't think this matters one way or another. My kids all go/went to a small Elementary School (500 kids) and my wife teaches at a mega-Elementary School (nearly 1000 kids). They're all getting quality education and class sizes are all equivalent.

 

[golfgal]

Our school district has been fighting over this same issue for the last several years -- we're at a stalemate.

We have 2 very small towns and one larger town that each has it's own gradeschool. Our superintendant and the school board members from the larger town want to build one large grade school in the larger town and bus the students from the two smaller towns. This is being marketed to voters as a cheaper alternative to remodeling all three current grade schools. However, the budget for building one large grade school does not include any associated cost for renovating and turning our current schools over to another purpose.

In the case of our small town, the grade school is one of only a handful of buildings in the center of town (well, a little village, really). The school is not zoned for commercial use, nor is there any consumer base to keep much of a commercial enterprise going. Tearing the school down would literally leave a gap in the town. Regardless of the school board's desires, our town needs to renovate the school. Many of the more necessary repairs are entirely due to the school board not performing maintenance all along.

The school board's plan to remodel/renovate the three existing grades schools has some major flaws, however, that make it unpalatable to voters. The board has done little to mitigate expenses in the projected budgets -- proposed changes seriously exceed the needs. Additionally, the school board has done very little to plan how they would implement remodeling ALL THREE grade schools at one time.

So far, we've voted a handful of times and I think we'll be voting again soon on this matter.

In all likelihood, my DD2.5 will be in middle school before any remodeling or building is approved, designed, funded, and built.

Our old town just closed down it's old middle school and one elementary school after they built a new high school and shifted classes. The money they got for the old buildings was pretty insignificant as compared to the costs of the new school/renovations. Just something to keep in mind for your situation.

They got $250,000 for each building. The reason for such low payments is that they contain asbestos and the asbestos abatement costs are so high no one is going to pay much for the buildings. The middle school building is being torn down and houses are being built on that property (after the asbestos is being taken care of), the elementary school is now housing a Christian school and part of the stipulation for the sale was that they have to maintain the playground/green space around the school for community use, so they basically bought the school, not the grounds but they are responsible for the upkeep of the grounds.

 

[kami2199]

We recently had a consolidation of schools. It still isn't very big to be honest though. I was totally against it as I loved having my daughter 2 blocks away and her class size was only 19 kids for the ENTIRE kindergarten class...not just her particular room but all kinders. Now her 2nd grade class has about 70 kids. The other school was a little bigger than our old one!

I have come to love the new school though. She has met so many new friends and now I couldn't imagine her not having them. In the beginning everyone was pretty divided, they only wanted a teacher from X school and not Y school or why are they not using this curriculum and why are they doing things according to that school's tradition. But, it has worked out and everyone is seemingly happy now. So, regardless of what happens, chances are it will be fine either way. Just think of all the new friends you child can meet and how much more they might be able to do if combining schools means more funds. One very important factor though is that they get equal representation at least to start. There should be at least one board member representing all of the "old" schools sitting on the board and consolidation committees.

 

[golfgal]

We are talking about combining four elementary schools 4K-5, into one larger school district. Each school is at about 300-400, so I would say we are talking about approximately 1400 kids.

While 1400 kids/elementary school is pretty big it isn't uncommon. If you have 7 grades 4K-5th grades, that is about 8-9 sections of each grade depending on class size. That is about what our elementary schools have here. There are about 24 sections of each elementary grade in 2 elementary schools that feed into each middle school so our schools are actually a bit larger.

We are new to this district and our kids' old school had about 380 students K-8, so considerably smaller. I am amazed at the feeling of community we have experienced so far. DS11 has an invite for a birthday party, the people at the school know our kids already, ALL of DS14's teachers knew who he was at open house, which is amazing because he is a pretty invisible kid-doesn't say much in class, doesn't cause trouble, etc. We have only been in school for 3 weeks.

If done well, a large school can work. No, they probably won't know all the kids in their school, but they can easily know all the kids in their grade.

 

[Sthronds]

In the district I live in now, there are about ten K-6th grade schools, four 7-8th, and 2 high schools. It seems to work for a district this size. Where I grew up, we had 1 school for K-2, one for 3-5, one for 6-8 and the high school. That works there because it was a smaller population.

 

[goofy4tink]

Back in the early 60's our town of about 12,000 had one elementary school, a junior high school and a high school. Then, we went with 2 elementary schools (based on where in town you lived), one school with 5th grade, and then junior high (6-8) to high school. Now, we have three elementary schools, K-3, an intermediate school where all the 4-6th grades go, middle school, 7 and 8, and high school.
We found that the three different elementary schools worked out quite well. They were small enough that kids didn't feel lost in the shuffle and the class sizes were pretty decent. Then, when they all got to 4th grade, they got to know all the other kids in the town. Middle school has been terrific for dd so far. She is with kids her own age, rather than older high schoolers, or younger elementary kids. The town now has about 18,000 in it so it's not huge by any means.

 

[Not so Dumbo]

My kids are in a very rare school district. There is only one other like it that our PTO could find. They were trying to find others b/c we were having so many problems at first.

Our 2 schools are set up on the same property and share common space such as the cafeteria and gyms. Other than that they are seperate schools.

The pros to this are that the schools can share bussing, the cost of the land to build on was donated, and a shared cafeteria and food service.

The negs were how to determine which kids went to which school. If they divided by location based on neighborhood then some parents were upset that their kids were being sent to the"poor" school b/c of the number of trailer parks and apartments we have. If they determined based on a lottery, then neighbor kids would be split up. They opted for the lottery but many kids are very upset that they can't be with their friends. Playgrounds are seperate also so they don't get to see them all day.
Also, the 2 schools operate differently, so one school may choose to have a father/daughter dance or someother function and the other would opt out or wouldn't have the funding or volunteer support to sponsor an event. This has upset many kids. They ofcourse know about the other schools functions b/c of their friends that go to the other school.
The PTO was also another issue, does it stay as one organization serving the whole school district or does it split into two organizations serving each school. If it stays as one how do it's funds get split? By what each school sells or is it split in half regardless of each schools profits? Turns out there's no good answer. One school will be unhappy either way. Either they will feel jipped that they sold more of the fundraiser and had to fork over "their" money and the other school didn't pull it's weight or that the school that sold more will have a larger advantage than the other one. Meaning it can offer more to it's students.

I would have liked to have seen smaller neighborhood schools. In our case, putting cost aside, I feel that our situation has caused more trouble that what it was worth. Not to mention, the 2 schools are already at capacity and they are planning on adding a 3rd on to the 2 exsisting and having to redivide the schools and start from scratch.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Our small elementary schools have close to 800 kids.
My dd's 10th grade class alone has 700 students.

1400 is not too bad for a number.

I guess my main concerns would be....

1) How are they going to handle growth? What is the "plan B" there?
2) Principals, staff, nurses? How are they going to staff it? 1400 is an unacceptable for 1 principal and 1 nurse.
3) Parking and picking up kids. With dd's HS, getting out of the parking lot takes a half hour, so I pick her up 1/2hr after they get out.

 

[CEDmom]

I think several small ones. In an elementary school the administration is very hands on. I can't imagine 1 elementary school principal handling 2000+ students. I'm just using the number of elementary students is our district. We have 4 schools. You'd need more than 1 library, gym, computer lab, art room etc. because I can't imagine scheduling that many classes into 1 of each. Finally I think it would just be overwhelming for too many of the kids. Imagine a kindergartener in a sea of 2000 other kids. You'd almost have to design small schools w/i a large complex to make it work.

 

[McKelly]

Lots of good points, I guess when the principal said this would more than likely take years to decide, he was right on. Any more opinions?