School district looks at reorganization options

Changing demographics in the Mountain Home School District is forcing the district to consider a number of options for reorganizing what grades will be in what buildings, and is asking the public to offer comment on several options it has under consideration.

The district has not gone to the expense of analyzing the exact costs associated with any of the options at this time, but will do so once the public helps it pare down the options it is proposing, or offers additional viable options.

Under ideal circumstances the district would like to move forward with a bond proposal for Phase II of the junior high, converting it into the high school.

When originally built ten years ago the district had expected to expand the junior high into a high school with a follow-up bond (Phase II) only two or three years down the road. The building was designed for the expansion, with most of the more expensive specialized labs and other facilities necessary for a high school already in place. But to turn it into a high school would have required building a "competition gym" to meet state requirements for a high school and adding another classroom wing to the building.

That would have added considerably to the cost of the original $12 million bond, which was passed when a unique set of circumstances involving a major boost in assessed valuation within the district allowed the district to seek the bond without having to raise tax rates.

At the time, the building cost $85 per square foot. Today, costs for public facilities run around $200 a square foot, meaning the additions to the junior high that would be required to turn it into a high school housing grades 9-12 would be nearly double the cost of the original bond, somewhere in the $20 million range -- or higher, as construction costs continue to skyrocket.

A meeting of invited community leaders two weeks ago, representing a broad range of district patrons, indicated, in general, support for the high school expansion option, which is one of five options the district is currently looking at to solve several problems it its facing.

The district has closed two of the three schools on base in recent years because of declining enrollment there, most recently the building that housed fourth- and fifth-grade students. There were only enough students on base to justify one large, overcrowded class in each of those grades. By busing those students to schools in town the district saved both administrative staff costs and major operations costs for the building, which was mothballed.

But at the town schools enrollment has finally begun climbing again, after years of decline.

When the district first built the junior high it was experiencing considerable growth, which it anticipated would justify the Phase II portion of the high school/junior high project in just a few years. But almost from the day the new building opened the district's enrollment flattened out for several years, then began a slow decline that only recently has begun to be reversed.

Meanwhile, the internal demographics of the district have been changing. Hacker Middle School is overcrowded, completely maxed out in its capacity to handle students, and growth in the northeast portion of the city has overloaded North Elementary, forcing some students there to be bused to West Elementary.

At the same time, the district is enormously concerned about rising drop-out rates. When the Idaho Legislature functionally eliminated compulsory education several years ago (by ending any reporting requirements or verifiable performance standards for home schooling), the loss rate of students graduating from the junior high and subsequently graduating from high school began to rise dramatically. Today, nearly 30 percent of students in the ninth grade do not graduate from high school in the district (most dropping out between ninth and tenth grades), a figure that is comparable with other large schools in Idaho.

"The kids in ninth grade just aren't seeing the link between what they're doing and what it takes to graduate," said Superintendent of Schools Tim McMurtrey. "The classes they take count for graduation requirements, but they're not seeing that.

"We believe if they were part of the high school, if we could put the freshmen in the same building with the sophomores, juniors and seniors, more of them would see the end result" and subsequently stay in school, he said, suggesting that would be one of the main advantages to expanding the high school.

The district, and high school Principal Jeff Johnson, have made an effort this year to get the ninth-grade freshman involved in the high school, "to give them a sense of belonging," McMurtrey said. One highly visible aspect of that effort was inviting the freshmen to take part in the homecoming assembly, and there will be more efforts this year to get the freshmen involved in high school programs and culture.

So, for McMurtrey, going for a Phase II bond makes the most sense in terms of being able to shift students in the district to make best use of existing buildings and to, hopefully, improve the graduation rate.

But it's not the only possible option, and others may cost less, at least in the short term, although McMurtrey clearly hopes the district's patrons will look at the long term and go for Phase II now, before costs go even higher.

McMurtrey laid out five options for the community focus group that the district has developed.

First, is to simply maintain the status quo. "Doing nothing different is always an option," he told the group. The district can handle the current enrollment with its present configuration, it doesn't upset anyone, won't result in an increase in staff, and gives the district more time to analyze future options, McMurtrey said.

On the flip side of the coin for that option, it does nothing for increased student performance, severely restricts the ability of students to "recover" credits they may have failed to acquire in ninth grade, Hacker Middle School remains crowded, and nothing really happens between addressing the disconnect between ninth-grade students and the high school, and the resulting high dropout rate between grades 9 and 10.

It also makes it difficult to share staff between the high school and ninth grade and because of that it doesn't allow for enough staff to be available to provide intervention programs for subgroups of students identified as needing specialized instruction to meet the district's graduation requirements (which are much tougher than the state standards).

So Option 1 maintains the status quo, including the current problems.

Option 2 would put the ninth-grade students on a special block schedule in which the district would share staff and programs between the junior high building and the high school. Hacker would remain as a building housing grades 5-7.

The advantage to that system is that ninth-grade students would have access to the expanded electives and programs available at the high school, it allows a little more flexibility of scheduling with the staff, a better opportunity for credit recovery by students who fail a class, and gives the district a little better effort to focus on subgroups of students that are struggling. It also helps prepare the community for an eventual advance to Phase II, where grades 9-12 would be in one building.

The disadvantage is that the ninth-grade students could easily wind up moving between the high school and the junior high (causing problems during bad weather and students who might "stray" during the day).

It also could severely disrupt the bell schedule at the junior high, which would have to run two separate schedules (and lunch times could be an issue), the junior high would lose some of its elective options (which currently are limited anyway), it may actually require hiring more staff for study hall and core classes, and the district might have to increase its graduation requirements in order to keep high-achieving seniors in school.

The district tries to keep seniors with a full class load to keep them interested in school (the better seniors in most districts often need only one or two classes to graduate by their senior year), better prepare them for post-graduation, and also, it believes, it helps cut down on juvenile crime rates in the city by keeping students in class.

But Option 2, McMurtrey said, "might be too much of a fix."

Option 3 involves shifting the seventh grade from Hacker Middle School to the junior high (which currently has only grades 8 and 9), keeping the eighth grade at the junior high and grades 10-12 at the high school, and having the ninth grade "shared" between the junior high and the high school.

That would allow for a more efficient use of staff, would provide freshmen with better opportunities for credit recovery and elective options, and could, at least partially, help address the drop-out rate problems by making the freshmen feel more like they are part of the high school. It also would provide a more cohesive activity and academic program, allow the district to more efficiently focus on subgroups of students that need help (in particular those whose primary language is Spanish), and once again helps prepare the community for the Phase II project that will, eventually, be needed simply to handle the long-term growth of the district. It also would allow more time for students to develop their "senior project," a program the state will be requiring.

It also would solve the overcrowding problem at Hacker.

The disadvantage is similar to that of Option 2, in that freshmen would be moving from one building to another and there would invariably be a disconnected and disruptive bell schedule at the junior high. Although more electives would theoretically be open to students, actually accessing them might be a problem, and the district probably would have to hire more staff. Hacker also would lose its status as a middle school, with the specialized programs developed for middle school students, and in effect revert to a "super elementary," McMurtrey said.

Option 4 also shifts grades among the buildings. Under that plan, Hacker would have only grades 5 and 6, as in Option 3, the junior high would have only grades 7 and 8, and the high school would take on the ninth grade.

The advantage to that option is that grades 9-12 are all in one building and one schedule and both Hacker and the junior high would have a good mix of students that are roughly at the same levels of emotional and skill/intellectual development.

But Hacker would lose its middle school programs, the junior high would not be utilized to full capacity and the high school would be "very overcrowded," McMurtrey said, causing problems with locker space, overloaded bathrooms, lunchroom capacity, inadequate numbers of computer and science labs, and almost certainly the need to install a number of "temporary" buildings on the high school grounds. The demands for the vo-tech and consumer science programs, which already are at full capacity, would increase substantially, "and there'd probably be a lot of angry parents," McMurtrey said.

Some of the overcrowding problems could be solved, however, he said, "by doing some creative scheduling" in which the school day is extended and some grades attend during only one part of the day, while others attend the remainder of the day.

When questioned about whether or not it would be useful to go to a year-round school to solve some of those problems, McMurtrey noted that not all of the schools, and only a portion of the high school, have air conditioning, which could make classroom conditions insufferable during the summer.

Option 5 would involve seeking a bond for the Phase II portion of the junior high in order to convert it to a grade 9-12 high school. Junior high students, would then use the current high school.

That would address the district's perceived need to have the ninth grade "feel" like it is part of the high school, hopefully cutting the drop-out rate, would allow all the district's buildings in town to be utilized most efficiently, would solve most of the overcrowding problems and allow the most efficient use of staff and allocation of resources.

"It's where we're going to have to go eventually, but each year we wait the costs are going to go up," McMurtrey said, and "it stops us from using a band-aid approach to reconfiguration."

At the same time, he admitted that the current taxpayer revolt would make it difficult to pass a large bond, even though "it ultimately is the most efficient and cost-effective way to go."

McMurtrey encouraged patrons of the district to call the school district administrative office, or write letters, outlining their thoughts on the various options, or proposing additional options the district might consider.

He said the district would be analyzing the feedback during December, would pare down the options during January, and sometime at the end of January or early February present its recommendations to the school board for a decision.

If the board decides to try for Option 5, the Phase II expansion of the current junior high to convert it into the high school, it would probably go for a May bond issue.