Next year, North Callaway R-1 School District will have a middle school.
The North Callaway Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to execute the first phase of the district's Future Vision plan, citing aging buildings and unbalanced student distributions.
In the short term, the district will re-purpose Auxvasse Elementary School, turning it into a middle school.
There are currently three elementary schools in North Callaway - Auxvasse, Hatton-McCredie and Williamsburg. Each serves students ranging in age from kindergarten to eighth grade.
The Auxvasse building will be redubbed North Callaway Middle School, taking in all sixth through eighth grade students. Hatton-McCredie and Williamsburg will keep the younger students, with kindergarten through fifth-grade students from Auxvasse split between them.
For the most part, Highway 54 will mark the boundary determining which school elementary students will attend - those to the west will attend Hatton-McCredie, while those on the east will got to Williamsburg.
The only exception is the area bound by Route E, Old Highway 54, County Road 260 and U.S 54 - though west of U.S. 54, this section will attend Williamsburg Elementary School.
"This decision wasn't made lightly," board member Dustin Moore said. "It's been discussed, and we weighed our options. I truly believe the board has the students' best interest at heart."
In a letter to parents, district Superintendent Nicky Kemp explained this reshuffle will balance the number of students in each building and better focus resources.
A big reason for the plan is space - some schools are overcrowded, with students stuck learning in trailers.
"This would eliminate the need for students to go in and out of the building," she said. "We would no longer have full-time classes out in those trailers."
Trailers will still likely be used for things such as the gifted program, but all daily, full-time classes can move back inside the building.
Consolidating students by age will also allow for more class offerings.
"Placing the sixth-eighth grades in one building will allow us to take into consideration our teachers' strengths and use those to best educate our students," board member Amy Reinhard said in an email.
With all middle school teachers under the same roof, students will have the chance to take "true electives," Kemp said.
"For example, students could actually get to pick which type of art class they want to take," she said.
Having middle school teachers spread across three different building has caused some less than ideal situations, such as teachers having to teach classes outside of their core subject.
"With middle school, we are often asking teachers to teach more subjects than what they went to school for," she said.
At first glance, the plan seems to primarily benefit middle school students. But Kemp said there are many positives for students and teachers at all levels.
"The middle school students will feed into the high school, which will have students that are better rounded," she said.
Additionally, separating young students from middle school students will allow staff to better serve their schools.
Currently, kindergartners and eighth-graders are housed in the same buildings despite the fact the needs of a 5-year-old and a teenager can be very different. Kemp said she sees the opportunity for more collaboration between teachers and better-focused counseling services.
Future plans
In the coming years, the district hopes to introduce more changes with the goal of eventually having a centralized campus.
Phase two relies on voter approval of a no-tax increase bond initiative. Kemp said voters will likely see the bond issue on the ballot in a few years.
If approved by voters, the district hopes to build a new building on district-owned land near North Callaway High School. The new school would serve all students pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. At this point, Hatton-McCredie and Williamsburg schools would be closed.
The schools in Hatton-McCredie and Williamsburg are decades old. A letter to parents noted building maintenance is costly - as the buildings age, those costs can only increase.
"As they age and as we get storms, we're going to continue to see these problems," Kemp said, describing aging pipes, roofs and electrical lines.
Eventually, when the district's bonding capacity replenishes, it hopes to consolidate all students onto a centralized campus. The details of this plan are still vague - everything depends on funding and voter approval.
Parent communications
Reinhard and Moore understand some parents might have concerns about the changes.
"As far as reservations, people are not always good with change upfront, but after a while, they come around to it," Reinhard wrote. "I will have three children in three different buildings. Two of the three will have some of the longest bus rides in the district."
Even so, Reinhard supports the plan, noting it will allow for better educational opportunities.
"I see so much positive potential in this move that it will become comfortable in the long run," Reinhard wrote. "Something that I'd like families to know before next year is that it doesn't matter which building or buildings your child or children are part of, we are all part of the North Callaway family and that is what's important."
Moore has four children in the district. Next year, the family will be split between Hatton-McCredie and the middle school in Auxvasse.
"The biggest issue we're going to face is just change," Moore said. "It's been this way forever."
Moore was hesitant at first about the loss of the community elementary schools but said it is what was best for the students.
"It's not about me," Moore said. "It's about the kids."
Under normal circumstances, the district would schedule public forums and sit down with groups to outline the plan. With schools closed due to COVID-19 and public gatherings banned, the district has fewer options to rally public support.
Kemp said if things settle down and open back up, the district will likely hold meetings explaining its vision. In the meantime, the focus is on social media, emails and letters.
"Obviously there's no textbook on this is how you do this," Kemp said. "We want to make this understandable and alleviate fears and stress for families."
This article was edited at 10:10 a.m. April 8, 2020, to correct the grades included at North Callaway Middle School.