School board seeks unity on revamping education

The future of the East Valley School District’s re-visioning plan was left hanging in the balance Wednesday evening after the school board held another workshop to discuss their plans.

The board has been discussing plans to revamp the way it teaches its students. Superintendent John Glenewinkel said that currently about 70 percent of the students are demonstrating mastery of their subjects – which he said is typical of most districts in the area – and the district wants to find a way to serve that other 30 percent.

“How are we going to meet the needs of every kid?” Glenewinkel said.

Some of the ideas the board has been discussing include a plan for kindergarten through eighth-grade schools or kindergarten through third-grade schools and schools for students in the fourth through the eighth grades.

The K-8 plan includes a middle-school learning enrichment school.

After getting some preliminary figures from Matt Walker and Todd Smith from Hill International, an architectural firm, the board realized that the cost of either plan to taxpayers would be about the same – about $28 million for the K-8 plan and $30 million for the K-3 plan – and discussed which option would be better.

Glenewinkel asked the board what they thought their moral imperative was as a district.

Their answer was that every child must make one year of progress, and if they are having trouble, intervene to help them grow.

Board chair Roger Trainor took an informal poll of the board members to find out which plan each member preferred.

Kerri Lunstroth, another board member, said she was leaning toward the K-3 plan. She argued that it was in those years students learned to read before they moved to the next level, reading to learn. There would be smaller groups in the 4 through 8 schools in the classrooms. She also said she doesn’t worry about the extra transition for students in those years, since she felt transitions helped the students prepare for the future.

“The more I look at it, I do like it better,” Lunstroth said.

Board member Mitch Jensen agreed. He felt a kindergarten through third-grade school would stress the importance of literacy in the district.

“A K-3 says, ‘We believe that there is nothing more important than childhood literacy,’ ” Jensen said.

He added that for students, it is an exciting time to move on to middle school.

Mike Harris was also in favor of the K-3 plan. He felt that devoting resources to K-3 sends a message that the district cares about early childhood development.

Trainor said he originally was in favor of the K-8 model, but that the more he thought about it, he felt K-3 would be more beneficial to the students.

He said he felt there would be more opportunity for students to learn and more opportunity for collaboration between teachers.

“I don’t think K-8 is probably going to be enough,” Trainor said.

The lone holdout was Heidi Gillingham.

“No. 1, it takes away community schools,” she said. Going to the school closest to your house wouldn’t be an option for students anymore. She also felt the community was more in favor of K-8 schools and there would be one less transition between schools for the students, and the enrichment center would be a change in the entire system for students, and that putting fourth- and fifth-graders into a middle school environment wasn’t a good idea.

The discussion then turned to whether the board could sell the idea to the community if they weren’t unanimous.

“I don’t think we can move forward without a 5-0 vote,” Jensen said.

At the end of the meeting, the board agreed to discuss the matter again at its retreat Aug. 20.

“This has only begun,” Trainor said. “We’re not done.”