Board drops plan to realign middle schools

By Rick Rouan

BOARDMAN — The school board here has scrapped an idea to realign its two middle schools and instead will pursue plans to implement more core-class time and more tutoring time into its current setup.

After debating a preliminary proposal to realign the schools at a special meeting Monday, the district decided the potential hurdles were too great and that the district should explore other options to add more face time between students and teachers, Superintendent Frank Lazzeri said.

The board was considering changing the district’s two middle schools from each teaching fifth through eighth grades to each building housing two grades, but it faced problems ranging from potential costs to the district to its inability to accommodate two sports teams in a single building.

Under the proposal, fifth- and sixth-graders would have attended Boardman Center and seventh- and eighth-graders would have attended Glenwood Middle.

“You’re almost trying to jam a round peg into a square hole because of our facilities,” said Mark Fulks, school board member.

The idea to realign the schools started when Lazzeri asked the two middle-school principals, Tony Alvino at Glenwood and Randy Ebie at Center, to devise a plan to realign the schools to provide more time in core classes (science, math, social studies and English) and in tutoring sessions without making cuts to the district’s music program and without spending additional money.

The plan also was to incorporate “teaming teaching,” which assigns four teachers in various subject areas to 100 students.

But the principals could not find a way to realign the schools without some potential costs, such as an additional $250,000 needed to add bus routes and the necessity of more teachers.

The schools also would have been lumping two seventh- and eighth-grade sports programs into one building, making it difficult to accommodate twice as many student-athletes in the same-sized facility.

Alvino said a realignment would probably require more locker rooms and a new small gym addition.

“I just think academic- and curriculum-wise, it’s very positive,” Ebie said. “It’s coming down to a financial question ... it’s going to cost some money.”

With those hurdles in mind, the district asked the principals Monday to instead find a way to incorporate “teaming teaching,” more classroom time in core classes and more tutoring time outside the classroom with teachers within the current structure, Lazzeri said.

Under the current system, students get special help from one of the three “intervention specialists” at each school.

“Everything we do is a double-edged sword,” Alvino said.