District’s plan places 5th-graders in RMS
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RONAN — A plan that would move fifth grade elementary students to the Ronan Middle School building solicited concern from Ronan School Board trustees during a meeting on Monday.
“As promised you in July, the process is going forward and the administration team has discussed it and wrestled with it,” Ronan Superintendent Andy Holmlund said.
Based on the limited amount of space at K. William Harvey Elementary school, the plan to move the fifth-graders was presented by Ronan Middle School Principal Mark Johnson.
He explained the logistics of the fifth-graders sharing the middle school building with the sixth, seventh and eighth graders, emphasizing the intent to keep fifth graders separate from older students during lunch, recess and other inter-class activities.
The fifth grade students will eat lunch from 10:50 a.m. for 25 minutes before being shuffled out the northeast entrance, as to minimize contact with older students who start lunch shortly after.
The early lunch period raised health concerns with some trustees, especially since the fifth grade students will not be able to have their healthy fruits and vegetable afternoon snack supplied in the elementary school.
The plan states that fifth-graders will have access to Physical Education twice a week, which, Johnson said, works with the school’s objective to fight against childhood obesity.
Furniture for the classrooms and playground equipment will be purchased for the approximately 110 fifth grade students, and there is a possibility of using the high school family consumer, industrial art and Spanish teachers a few periods a day if necessary. Johnson also mentioned that the district would need to hire a full-time art teacher if the plan is approved.
Holmlund reassured the trustees that parents would be informed of the move and educated as to how the fifth grade would function in the middle school building.
The school board also discussed the authorization on the school district investment account with representatives from First Interstate Bank, which the trustees moved to a second reading.
“There’s a lot of ramifications and ripple effects for the small schools in the county,” Lake County Superintendent of Schools Gale Decker said.
