Schools facing major changes this year

The district has installed a dozen temporary buildings to help house the freshman class.

The Mountain Home School District is facing several major issues as it gets ready for the start of school Aug. 24.

Funding cutbacks at the state level combined with declining enrollment are forcing the district to tighten its belt -- again, and the district reorganization plan will have a major impact on students at the high school.

The reorganization is the issue likely to be the most visible of the changes the district is making.

In order to alleviate overcrowding problems at Hacker Middle School, the district last spring decided that, beginning this fall, Hacker would house only grades five and six, instead of five to seven, and the junior high would handle grades seven and eight, instead of eight and nine.

The ninth-grade students have been relocated to the high school, a move that district officials believe will ultimately improve their learning experience. Not only will the move make those students more aware that they are now earning credits toward graduation, but it also will open up a broader range of classes for them and allow the school district to better utilize the teachers it has there.

The high school itself is not large enough to handle the additional grade, so the district has erected 12 temporary classrooms on the east side of the school to accommodate the extra students. Ten of those buildings were moved from other schools in the district and two new ones were purchased.

See the Mountain Home News for the complete story.