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Board agrees to collect data before considering return of 5th grade to elementary schools
Summary
Directors asked administration to compile comparative academic, discipline and enrollment data and to consider amendments to the existing recovery plan before deciding whether to return 5th grade to elementary schools; the matter will go to the building-utilization committee.
Board members debated whether to return fifth graders to elementary schools, a change administrators said originally belonged to a multi-part recovery plan. Some directors urged reconsideration and asked for an amendment to the recovery plan if the board decides to move forward; others said the move should be part of the building-utilization committee's broader work.
Directors requested measurable data on academic outcomes, discipline incidents and transfer/withdrawal rates to assess whether the change met the recovery plan's objectives. "What is the district doing to measure the success of this move?" one director asked, requesting benchmark, Panorama and mental-health data to compare the K–5 configuration against the current arrangement. Administration said it would prepare memos with comparative metrics and include principal observations collected earlier the same day.
Board members also discussed instructional hours (one member noted 990 hours vs. 900 in elementary settings), teacher certification and potential capacity impacts. Administration said it would include information on certification, instructional-hour differences and student counts in the requested memo and that the new board could later decide whether to pursue an amendment of the recovery plan. No vote was taken; the board scheduled further discussion through the utilization committee and at future public meetings.
