Butler touts smooth change
This is the first of two stories about the recent school closings and grade consolidation by the Butler School District. The story on Monday will focus on what changes are expected in the new school year.A year ago there was anticipation about how the school consolidation plan would work in the Butler School District.After its first year, the overall transition went as smoothly as could have been expected, according to district officials.“We believe the objectives were met in most cases,” Superintendent Dale Lumley said. “Obviously, we faced some issues, but we think it went as smoothly as we think we could have it go.”Tom DeGeorge, the president of the Butler Education Association, also said the consolidation was a good change.“I think the transition itself was an adjust for everyone ... how we were going to approach this new configuration,” DeGeorge said. “It took some time to adjust to that, but it was a positive adjustment.”The consolidation, which was approved by the school board in May 2015, reconfigured the elementary schools to house kindergarten to fourth grade rather than up to sixth grade. The fifth and sixth grade students now attend the newly created middle school in the previous junior high school building downtown.The intermediate high school houses seventh to ninth grade students, and students in 10th to 12th grade attend the high school.During the consolidation, five elementary schools were closed, with Center Avenue reopening as an alternative and special needs school, leaving Broad Street, Clearfield, Meridian and Oakland elementary schools permanently closed.Administration and board members said the change went as well as possible while acknowledging there are areas the district can improve, most notably student transportation.What workedThe consolidation met a number of goals set by the district administration.Through the change, more equitable education is now provided by the district, according to Lumley.“We have more equitable staffing,” he said. “We have probably a more balanced use of resources. We definitely have greater resources for many of the teachers with the technology that we put in place. We wanted to establish equity and consistency, and I think we’ve managed to achieve those goals.”This includes consistency of technology is available across the grade levels and how many teachers and support staff exist.In addition to consistency, secondary students have more classes available to them, according to Brian Slamecka, assistant superintendent of secondary education.Students at the intermediate and high schools have more courses since they can be shuttled between the buildings, Slamecka said.Students in 10th grade can now take courses at the Butler County Vocational-Technical School. In addition, students at the high school interested in taking classes only offered at the intermediate high school, such as first-year languages and wood and metal technology education courses, can be shuttled there for those classes.Board President Nina Teff agreed that the consolidation did create educational equality and consistency along with more opportunities, based on information the board gathered through the After-Action Review Committee.Board member Neil Convery also said the districtwide consistency was a major accomplishment of the consolidation.“I think it’s very positive that we can more efficiently use our schools, that we can increase the educational opportunities for our students,” he said.The data presented to the review committee also showed that class sizes evened out, according to Lumley and Teff.“We have much more balanced class sizes at all of the elementary buildings now,” Lumley said.Before the consolidation, average class size at the elementary schools ranged from 13 children per room up to 30 children.After the consolidation, that range was minimized to 14 to 24 children per room at the elementary level, according to data provided by the administration to the review committee.At the high school, just retired Principal Jeff Schnur said the school had more students with the addition of tenth graders, but it was not overcrowded.“Yes, moving through the halls was a little more crowded than it was in the past few years but not overly so and not dangerously so,” he said.“Class size went up. I guarantee it went up across the board, but we’re not talking that every class has 29 or 30 kids. We did our very best to keep classes down.”For the consolidation, the district targeted class sizes of 20 children per room from kindergarten to third grade, 24 from fourth to sixth grade and 27 from seventh to 12th grade.From kindergarten to third grade, the average class size is now 18 children per room, which was at 19 before the consolidation. From fourth to sixth grade, the average class size went from 21 in 2014-15 to 23 children per room after consolidation.At the high school, class size is typically 24 to 27 students, Slamecka said. Previously, that number had been lower, meaning classrooms now are used more efficiently, he said.While some classes may be over that 27 students per room target, the majority of classes are at or below that number.Another success of the consolidation was the improvement in attendance, especially with at-risk students, according to Teff.Board member Neil Convery also highlighted the slight increases in attendance from the year before consolidation to this past school year.Based on data provided by the administration to the review committee, elementary attendance increased from 95.9 percent before the consolidation to 96.2 percent after. The secondary attendance rate went from 94.6 percent in 2014-15 to 94.8 percent after consolidation.‘2 major bright lights’Mary Wolf, assistant superintendent of elementary education, said the two major successes of the consolidation are the Center Avenue Community School and the new middle school.“The two major bright lights of the whole consolidation have been, to me, the creation of the middle school and the creation of the Center Avenue program,” Wolf said. “Those are the two, I think, most unique changes.”The feedback from Center Avenue students, teachers and parents was all positive, Wolf said.In previous years, students who were in the alternative education program participated in an afternoon and evening, but now they have a day program which has received great feedback, Slamecka said.In addition to the educational shifts, by bringing alternative and special needs students back in-house, the district saved $591,000 this past school year.At the middle school, the fifth and sixth grade students took well to the new building, Wolf said. In fact, a survey done independently by the PTO at the middle school showed high student satisfaction, according to Jill Aaron, the president of the Parent Teacher Organization at the middle school.“The kids have loved (the consolidation),” she said. “The teachers do a good job about getting the kids excited about coming down (to the middle school).”In the past, the administration faced criticism about the possibility of moving fifth and sixth grade students into downtown, Lumley said, despite the fact that Broad Street and Emily Brittain elementary schools also are downtown.Aaron said that was a source of anxiety for some parents.“It was hard for parents because it’s not elementary school anymore,” she said. “It’s just a different world, and it’s just getting them on board.”The review committee, in Teff’s opinion, determined that the middle school’s downtown location was age-appropriate for the students and did not put the students in danger.For Aaron, what matters is how the district works to improve areas of concern.“This last year was a litmus test,” she said. “They saw what worked and didn’t work. I want to see how they’re going to make those changes this year.”
