Liverpool (WSYR-TV) -- The Liverpool School District is proposing a major reconfiguration that would change the face of the district from first through ninth grade.
On Monday, the Building Utilization Committee unveiled its five-point reconfiguration plan to the Board of Education, but there are still a number of questions to be answered: What’s the final cost? When would the proposed plan go into effect? And will it even work?
“If you never chance anything, the chances of things getting a little bit better are that much less,” said Liverpool School Board President, Pat Debona-Rosier.
Here’s how it all breaks down: All sixth graders would move out of the elementary schools and into the middle schools. To make room, the current ninth grade annex would become a fourth middle school.
"If we were to do this, it's possible to have two elementary schools feed into each one of the four middle schools. Which would give kids a sense of community from K-8,” explained Debona-Rosier.
The ninth graders in the Annex would move up to the high school. The nearby and former Wetzel Road Elementary school would be used for high school overflow.
And with the sixth graders on the move, the plan calls for closing one elementary school. Although the committee says Chestnut, Liverpool or Soule Road should not be considered.
While a shift in the student population has often been attributed to the redistricting effort, the school board president says it all comes down to academics.
“Liverpool is a great school. It’s always been a great school. We do really good things here. Our teachers work hard. Our administrators work hard. We’re looking at the possibility of restructuring to make it even better,” said Debona-Rosier.
But the question remains, is not the time to make such drastic changes? The price isn’t set in stone, but the estimated cost comes in at about $8.6 million. If the district bonds for it, taxpayers would be on the hook for $1.4 million.
“It just doesn’t make sense. We need to keep what we had and not change it at this point. We don’t have the money to do so,” said concerned parent, Sharon Yager.
The district will almost certainly bond for the project, which means it would have to be approved by taxpayers.
