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Poland school-consolidation plan moves forward
POLAND
School district officials and employees are preparing for the “redistricting” plan that begins this school year with consolidation of elementary schools.
This week, classroom materials are being moved as the consolidation plan is set in motion.
That plan includes the elimination of North Elementary, which in the fall will be home to the district preschool program.
Union and Dobbins also will see some changes. Union will be home to kindergarten, first and second grades, and Dobbins will house third and fourth grades. Each school previously had kindergarten through fourth-grade classes.
Beginning with the 2017-18 school year, the plan is to close McKinley Elementary, home to fifth and sixth grades, and use it only on an as-needed basis. Those students then would move to the middle-school building.
The redistricting plan, approved by the board of education earlier this year, was implemented because of a sharp decline in student enrollment. They estimate the plan will save the district $2.5 million over five years, partly because of attrition.
To prepare for the changing use of the buildings, the board also has approved projects at some of the buildings.
The district will go out to bid next week for a project that will add a new bus driveway to the side of Union Elementary that faces U.S. Route 224.
Also being added to Union is an elevator to make the building compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. That project is nearly complete, Superintendent David Janofa said.
Workers are repairing columns at the North building that had begun to collapse.
The next step in the plan is to send out more information to parents and take some steps to help families adjust to the changes.
“There will be students going to buildings they’ve never been to before, so we’re going to have open houses and things like that,” Janofa said.
Although the buildings that students will move to are not new, Janofa said parents and students can expect improvements to technology and curriculum.
For example, there will be districtwide wireless Internet, changes to transform the high-school library into a media center, drones to familiarize students with fly-over technology, new technology carts, a new technology teacher and more.
“There’s a lot to be done, and we’re still in the middle of it,” Janofa said.
The school district also will seek a bond issue in November to cover the 81 percent local share of an estimated $37 million project that would add new facilities, with help from a state program.
School-district officials are asking voters to approve a 34-year bond, the estimated millage of which is 4.78. That bond issue would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $167.23 annually.
If voters approve the measure, the plan is to construct new buildings for kindergarten through fifth grade and sixth to eighth grade.