District may revisit middle school grade lineup
The Onteora school district is considering whether to hire a consultant to evaluate a possible addition of grades to the middle school.
Onteora Middle School, on Route 28 in Boiceville, currently has seventh- and eighth-graders. School district Superintendent Victoria McLaren said that configuration has not been reviewed in more than seven years.
“Having been in the district for 14 years, I have seen two separate committees research the middle school configuration for Onteora, and they both recommended expanding the grade configuration. But that recommendation has not been acted upon,” she said.
McLaren said hiring a consultant would be in line with the Board of Education’s goal of developing a long-term districtwide plan to deal with declining enrollment.
“Someone like this would ... help the district to create the configuration and the educational learning spaces to support the kids without having a vested interest in how big the project is,” she said.
The school board plans to wait until reviewing recommendations before determining if a capital project is needed to accommodate any changes.
The last review of Onteora school configurations was conducted in 2011 by a district task force. It recommended that the middle school expand to include sixth grade.
The task force said the change would not be costly, would take three to four years to implement, would give teachers greater flexibility, and would make room for make room for pre-K classes in the district’s elementary schools.
Disadvantage cited by the task force included hallway congestion, the amount of classroom space that would be needed, resistance from parents, and the timing of students’ social and behavioral development.
McLaren said reductions in enrollment since the 2011 review report could impact how the district approaches its options.
“It depends on how you’re going to design your learning spaces,” she said. “I really can’t answer [questions about space] without having gone through the process of looking at learning spaces we want for the kids and how we would want to structure them.”