School district eyes moving classes

By BRENT SHRUM Western News Reporter

The Libby School District is looking into a number of proposed changes for the 2006-2007 school year, including moving kindergarten students to Asa Wood Elementary and fourth-graders to the middle school along with a tightening up of graduation requirements for high school students.

No decisions will be made until parents have a chance to comment on the proposals, said district superintendent Kirby Maki. Parent/community meetings are scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 6, at the middle school library on the elementary/middle school proposal and 7 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 13, at the Libby High School Timber Room on the new graduation requirements.

The proposal to move the kindergarten and fourth-grade classes makes sense from an educational and administrative standpoint, Maki said, because kindergarten is tied to the lower elementary curriculum along with grades one, two and three while the fourth-grade curriculum is more closely associated with grades five and six.

Kindergarten students would have better opportunities in the areas of health and physical education at Asa Wood, and the appropriate specialists and administrators would be available in the same building, Maki said. Kindergarten is currently housed at Plummer Elementary along with the pre-school and Head Start programs. The proposal calls for pre-school to remain at Plummer with Head Start, Maki said.

"It just makes sense to have them there, and we're talking 14, 15, 16 kids," he said.

Fourth-graders would be in the same pod at the middle school as the fifth-graders. Moving from the elementary school to the middle school would provide more opportunities in the areas of health, physical education and technology and offer better access to specialists, Maki said.

Parents have already expressed concerns about fourth-graders being in the locker room with eighth-graders, and plans have been made to ensure that doesn't happen, Maki said.

The proposed changes are in part a response to declining student numbers in the lower grades. The current eighth-grade class at the middle school, which will be moving to the high school next year, has 146 students while the current fourth-grade class that will be moving to the middle school has only 65 to 67 students, Maki said.

Student numbers across the district are down 75 from last year, and another 50 to 60 students are expected to be lost each year for the next several years, Maki said. Those losses have a direct impact on state funding.

"Even though the state's giving us more money, we're losing a significant number of kids," Maki said. "So the increase is not going to be as much as we would like it to be."

High school graduation requirements are proposed to increase from 23 to 24 credits, with requirements for college prep students increasing from 25 to 26 credits. Students would also be required to take three years each of math and science instead of the current two. Requirements for college prep students would increase from 25 to 26 credits.

"Academically, for math and science, three years is not unreasonable," Maki said.

The district currently offers enough elective classes for students to fulfill the requirements, Maki said.

The increase in credits follows a decrease from 24 to 23 several years ago when the high school schedule was changed from eight periods per day to seven. With all the students who started high school under the eight-period day graduated, the number of required credits can go back to 24 with no disparity, Maki said. He pointed out that a full schedule of seven classes over four years would add up to 28 credits.

Also proposed is a requirement that seniors be in school for six out of seven class periods with only one period of home release. Seniors are currently allowed two periods of home release.