The 39-member committee debating the organization of Butler Area School District unanimously voted not to renovate the downtown Butler Middle School building on North Street.

Beyond that, the path toward school reorganization in the district looks long and unclear.

For the last two months, a mass panel of parents, students, faculty and community representatives gathered to decide whether the district should shake up its organization of buildings or begin planning the necessary undertakings to keep its current setup viable.

But the biggest question hanging over the proceeding was the fate of the middle school building, which is over 100 years old.

The committee chose not to renovate the middle school building or to construct a new building to serve as the middle school, according to a summary of committee recommendations published Monday.

They notably did not vote specifically to close the middle school building, but its rough condition does not indicate that much more use is possible without eventual renovations.

Both decisions were unanimous, but from there the group was split.

The final vote came down between two options, with one getting 25 votes and the other getting 11, according to several members of the committee. Three members weren't present for the final vote.

The majority of the group voted for a particular plan that would reopen one school currently sitting empty and repurpose Center Avenue Community School for use as an elementary, bringing the district's total number of elementary schools to eight.

Center Avenue currently houses special education programs. while Broad Street Elementary serves only as storage space for the district, but the recommended plan would reopen it for regular use.

Superintendent Brian White revealed the results of the committee to the school board Monday night.

The matter drew a crowd of middle school teachers, as well as some parents who served on the committee.

The most contentious difference between the two options the committee voted between was the fate of fifth grade.

The chosen option would move fifth grade back to elementary schools, while the other option would put fifth through eighth at the Intermediate High School building. The building's two floors functionally split it into two schools, one serving fifth and sixth grades and the other serving seventh and eighth grades.

Current middle school teachers overwhelmingly support the latter option, and White himself recommended the latter option much earlier in this process. That age grouping allows for better social and academic development, teachers argued.

However, so far the school board's attempts to gather parent input suggests that the winning choice is favored among people who aren't educators.

The winning plan puts grades six through eight in what is currently Butler Intermediate High School. It would become a middle school.

Grades nine through 12 would attend class at what is currently Butler Senior High School. It would drop 'senior' and become just a regular high school. It would likely need an addition for that to work.

The committee went through a number of presentations and briefings before arriving at its choice. Topics included enrollment trends, architectural failures, the middle school's educational value and the finances of every option on the table.

Parent Jeneane Sintz spoke at the meeting to air her concerns that the vote itself wasn't representative of the discussions. She said she loved the presentations, but wasn't satisfied with the manner in which they boiled it all down to a choice at the end.

“I walked away from it feeling like we didn't really nail down a decision,” Sintz said.

Several teachers spoke to urge the board not to go through with the chosen route. Jennifer Yeager, a middle school teacher, spoke at length about the educational value of the middle school system. Developing the school was a challenge after the district's previous consolidation, she said, and the staff feels like it succeeded.

“We can take the awesomeness of our middle school and operate in half of this building,” Yeager said, standing in the Intermediate High School.

White said his plans going into Monday's meeting were to research the committee's chosen option, figure out its possibilities and finances, and bring it back for them to consider again.

After the meeting, he said he wanted to talk to his administrative team about considering and researching both options simultaneously before giving it back to the committee.

Either way, this will be a process that takes years, he said.

“The middle school needs work,” White said. “But the middle school is not going to fall over tomorrow.”