Despite some positive results from merged KLE and KME, state rules cause split
While some positive results are being reported from merged Kosciusko Lower and Middle Elementary schools for the 2016-17 school year, the School Board was compelled to revert to divided schools due to state standards.
State regulations require that each school have a full-time principal onsite. For this single year, however, the board had voted to have Lower Elementary Principal Michelle Nowell oversee both schools with the help of new Assistant Principal Chris Terry.
Goals for the temporary unification were to allow Terry to train under an experienced principal for a year and to evaluate the impact of aligning curriculum across the grades and subjects.
“It has definitely been an excellent collaboration between the two buildings, as well as the staff,” said Superintendent Gina Smith. “There is now more alignment through curriculum development, as well as looking at benchmark assessments that can now be shared because everyone is using the same program.”
Although Nowell will likely return to Lower Elementary next year, she said much of what was working with Middle Elementary will help her students and her in that role.
“I think on the positive side; it has allowed a flow curriculum-wise - a continuity from Lower to Middle,” she said. “Being familiar with the state standards for second and third grade, there are now things I can add at Lower to make it easier on the kids.”
“I was familiar with the kids and already knew all the parents. And they were familiar with me and knew my expectations,” Nowell said. “But I have a whole new appreciation for how hard these third grade teachers work. They have done everything I have asked them to do.”
One of the collaborations teachers and administrators worked on at Middle Elementary was to align teachers within their specialty areas. Instead of teachers handling all subjects for their assigned classes, they now focus on teaching their specialty subjects. Students switch classrooms with the intention of every student learning a subject from the teacher best-equipped to teach it.
Referring to the state regulations that govern school oversight, board member Brad Love summed up the decision to divide the two schools once again.
“There was no advantage for us to do it,” he said. “The best interest of the district was to revert back to the way it had been for the longest.”
State MAP testing of the third graders has just been completed. If those results show significant improvement, the district could reconsider a permanent merger of all three elementary schools under one roof - and under the leadership of one principal – in the future.
That merger, however, would require a significant capital building project to house all the students under one roof.
