Tecumseh to reconfigure grade assignments at elementary buildings next year

Tecumseh Local Schools is reconfiguring grades at two elementary schools, according to the district’s superintendent.

“Beginning next school year, Donnelsville Elementary School and New Carlisle Elementary School will be second through fifth grade buildings,” Tecumseh Local Schools Superintendent Paula Crew said.

Currently, Donnelsville Elementary serves second and third grade students while New Carlisle Elementary is for fourth and fifth graders. Park Layne Elementary will remain kindergarten through first grade.

In August, the school went through a strategic planning process and sent out a survey asking the community and staff members what they thought of the new grade level option.

“We received over 400 responses to that survey, and of those 400 plus responses, 78 percent responded that they’d like to see the district move forward with this option,” Crew said.

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Crew said there are two reasons why the school is doing this reconfiguration.

“We are doing this option to help alleviate the overcrowding at Donnelsville Elementary. Donnelsville Elementary has been overcrowded for many years, simply because it is the school with the smallest square footage of any of the operating elementary schools,” she said.

There are currently 460 students at Donnelsville and 432 students at New Carlisle.

The districts plan is to have 60 percent of students at New Carlisle Elementary, as they have the largest amount of square footage, and 40 percent of students at Donnelsville Elementary.

“This will also allow our schools to be a little bit more like a community school in that students in grades second through fifth will be in the same building for four years and have the opportunity to make connections and relationships.”

This option will be of no additional cost to the public as it is only a switch of grade levels to different buildings, Crew said.

The school did weigh the option of going back to kindergarten through fifth grades, but it wasn’t financially sustainable.

“We did look at shifting our schools back to K through 5 and evaluated that option, but unfortunately we are not able to sustain that financially. Moving back to K through 5 buildings would cost our district approximately $1.9 million each year and we do not have that amount of funding to sustain us,” Crew said.

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Also beginning next school year, students will no longer have to transfer buses.

“They will get on a bus at their home and be taken to their school on that same bus,” Crew said.

The district will also offer latchkey at New Carlisle Elementary and continue it at Donnelsville Elementary and Park Layne Elementary.

“It was a hard decision, but in the end, we really feel like this is a decision that will be best to serve the students of Tecumseh Local Schools.”

The district hopes to give a more finalized update after the Christmas holidays so families have plenty of time to plan for the new school year.


FACTS AND FIGURES

2 Number of grades each elementary school had

460 Number of students enrolled at Donnelsville Elementary

432 Number of students enrolled at New Carlisle Elementary

The Springfield News-Sun is committed to covering the changes to Clark and Champaign County school districts.

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