LOWER LAKE — The Konocti Unified School District is continuing to weigh its options in realigning grades and/or closing a campus within the district. Members of the school board and Superintendent Dr. Bill MacDougall heard comments of parents, students and teachers at Lower Lake Elementary School (LLES) on Tuesday.
Pomo Elementary School is the final campus scheduled to host a forum for public comment on the matter. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. tonight in the cafeteria.
Four recommendations have been presented and discussed at various sites. Final decision is expected to be made on March 11. Recommendations for grade realignment and /or school closures include:
? Close Oak Hill Middle School and change Pomo, Burns Valley and Lower Lake elementary schools into K-8 schools. This in effect would create four middle schools. Concerns expressed include the quality of the instructional program (music, art, and physical education), the junior high athletic program, teacher credentialing, counseling services, time-line issues affecting current seventh graders and capacity capabilities at other elementary campuses.
? Operate four K-8 schools with East Lake closing. The committee reportedly felt that there would be strong community opposition from Clearlake Oaks parents and residents who identify East Lake as a community resource.
? K-8 with grade separation with two schools and Oak Hill closing. This plan would separate students in school by grade level within a central attendance area. Burns Valley would be established as K-3, Pomo as 4-8 and Lower Lake elementary as K-8. East Lake would remain as is and Oak Hill would close.
? Retain existing alignment with Burns Valley closing. Under this plan all schools would remain the same as 2008-09 except Burns Valley would close and the K-6 students would attend other elementary schools. Oak Hill would continue as a 7-8 middle school for all district students except East Lake.
MacDougall encouraged input from all those wishing to speak to the matter on Tuesday. “We”re gathering a lot of ideas here. There are no bad ideas and we need to hear all of them,” he said. “We really respect your opinions and what you think is best for your schools. We want this to be a community-wide decision.”
Many of the same concern expressed at other sites were reiterated by parents and teachers at LLES. Concerns were for exposing younger children to the behavioral issues associated with older students; loss of programs such as music and art; adequate facilities for education, particularly physical education; the ability to staff teachers with required credentials for meeting teaching standards; and adequate availability of counselors for serving the students” needs.
A couple of new ideas were presented such as placing eighth graders on the high school campus and operate K-7 school sites. Consolidating principals was also suggested. The idea was to have one such administrator hold the principal responsibilities of all the elementary sites. Another suggestion was to charge for bus transportation based on parents” ability to pay.
Recommendations were presented to the community at Burns Valley Elementary School on Wednesday. The final site presentation will begin at 6 p.m. tonight at Pomo Elementary School. All interested members of the community are invited and encouraged to attend.
Contact Denise Rockenstein at drockenstein@clearlakeobserver.com or call her directly at 994-6444, ext. 11.
