LPS consolidation one year later

Just over one year after the Lawrence school board voted to close the Number Six School in Woodmere, the elementary school consolidation plan is sure to be an issue with residents who cast their ballots in the May 11 District 15 trustee elections.

The Lawrence school board's decision March 24, 2009, to shut down Number Six School in Woodmere, the newest and largest of the elementary school buildings in the district and the only one that was handicapped accessible, caused a firestorm among many parents. A year later, anger over the Number Six School's closure still exists among some parents but administrators and teachers have expressed satisfaction with how the move has worked out on an educational level.

The closure of Number Six School meant that all first-through fourth-graders in the Woodmere building were placed in either the Number Two School in Inwood or the Number Five School in Cedarhurst with fifth graders placed in Lawrence Middle School. The total savings for the district are estimated to be $7.45 million a year, according to district officials. Lawrence Superintendent Dr. John T. Fitzsimons recommended the consolidation of a school to the school board in December 2008 because of a projected decline in enrollment.

Dr. Fitzsimons said he could have either made the closure of Number Six or Five School work in his consolidation plan and did not indicate a preference to the school board. Closing Number Six has allowed for more significant savings, however, since the facility would have required nearly $6 million in repairs stemming largely from a mold problem that had developed in the building, according to Fitzsimons. "Financially it has been a huge windfall for the district," said Fitzsimons. "We have used space more wisely."

Shutting down Number Six School provided many facilities challenges, including displacing the Lawrence High School softball and gymnastics teams, who now both practice and compete at the Number Two School. Since the Number Six School was the only elementary school building that was handicap accessible, funds are being spent to install elevators at the Number Two and Five Schools. The upgrades are being used from $17 million the district set aside from the sale of the former Number One School in Lawrence.

Dr. Vicki Karant, Lawrence Public Schools Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, said in order to make concerned Number Six School parents comfortable with the sudden changes their children would soon face, the principals reached out with informational sessions prior to the start of the 2009/2010 academic year. "There was a lot of hard work done by principals to reach out to the parents," said Karant. "There was a great deal of very hard work that went into this on the part of the principals, superintendent and assistant superintendents to really make sure this could work."

While many are calling the consolidation plan a success, a legal battle is still ongoing over the school board's decision to close Number Six School rather than the older and smaller Number Five School. Five District 15 parents filed suit against the Lawrence Board of Education last summer claiming that the decision to close Number Six in Woodmere violated their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, and that the school board was pushing an Orthodox agenda over public-school concerns. On Aug. 24, U.S. District Court Judge Joanna Seybert dismissed the parents' lawsuit outright, but an appeal is in the works.

Atlantic Beach resident Andrew Levey, one of the five parents who sued the school board over the Number Six School closure, said his son loves attending the Number Two School but still feels the consolidation decision was the wrong one and that Number Five School should have been closed instead.

"While it is working on some levels, it still doesn't make it right," said Levey of the consolidation plan. "They didn't do what was in the best interests of the community, they were doing what was in the best interests of the taxpayers."

One of the biggest concerns parents expressed of the consolidation plan was having fifth graders at the middle school interacting with teenagers who are at a significantly different maturity level. To combat this challenge district officials have placed fifth and sixth graders on the second floor of the building with Rina Beach serving as their housemaster, and the seventh and eighth graders hold their classes on the first floor.

Lawrence Middle School Principal George Akst said during the first week of school that there were some minor incidents on buses involving older students picking on fifth graders, but that there have been no incidents since then, thanks to the installation of DVD players in the vehicles. The seventh and eighth graders are told to keep away from the upper floor where the younger students are, unless they are using the guidance or main offices, with security guards ready to react in case of an incident. Akst said that space has been more than adequate and the instruction the fifth graders are receiving has improved with the addition of world language and home & careers classes that they didn't have before.

"[The transition] was well coordinated," said Akst.

The consolidation plan presented a challenge for teachers, especially fifth-grade instructors relocated from an elementary school setting to a middle school environment. "It was a bit of a shock for many career elementary school teachers to have a bell schedule to conform to, but everyone has adjusted without a problem," said Lawrence Teachers' Association president Lori Skonberg. "It took a few months, but everyone seems to have settled in nicely to their new location."

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