The Bremerton School Board met Jan. 22 for a study session to discuss capacity issues within the district.
The Bremerton School District has been exploring ways to reduce class sizes–particularly at the elementary level–ever since the passing of Initiative 1351 in November.
Superintendent Aaron Leavell presented the board with 16 ideas to solve capacity problems.
Of all the ideas presented, the only option that appeared to be ruled out was moving West Hills STEM Academy to Mountain View Middle School.
“The new wing at (Mountain View) was built as a 6th-grade academy with the full intention of converting to a smaller elementary school should the need arise again,” Leavell said.
It would need a few more classrooms and a library, along with plumbing fixtures for smaller people and recess equipment in order to be a true elementary, Leavell said.
Several teachers and community members spoke out in favor of keeping West Hills in its current state. Many who objected believed a move would ruin STEM.
“Moving our program to Mountain View would equal the death of the program,” said West Hills teacher Andrea Tee.
West Hills operates more like an elementary than a conventional middle school, which many parents find attractive, said Lisa Heaman, West Hills principal.
“Moving our 6-8 grade program to (Mountain View Middle School) will not work,” Heaman said. “It is such an innovative, non-traditional instructional format and I see absolutely no way for it to work within a conventional middle school.”
The board will vote on the future of West Hills at the Feb. 5 meeting. West Hills has already been approved for an expansion so the board is just voting on the programming and design, Leavell said.
“The board will vote to either confirm the current plans and programming for (West Hills) addition, or to seek another direction,” Leavell said. “If they vote to seek another direction, then they would direct me to collect the necessary data to make a different decision, given the enrollment challenges.”
Leavell cautioned that the board’s decision won’t impact capacity next year.
“Their decision-making at the next meeting does not necessarily impact our capacity decisions for next school year as the new wing would not be available to move into in the fall anyway, so we would be planning on their expanded capacity for the 2016-17 school year,” Leavell said. “It will however, impact the long-range planning for balancing the district.”
No matter the decision made by the board regarding capacity, the district will likely need to “reboundary,” possibly twice.
“We don’t want our decision to have a major impact on the students,” said councilman Ken Watkins. “But we need to make a decision for the short term and long term.”