Committee recommends options for student placement - School Boards to review, select plan for upcoming school year

After two recent special meetings, a local Steering Committee recommended two potential options of consolidation for the upcoming school year.

Due to renovations at Lind-Ritzville High School (LRHS), set to begin this summer, the students will need to move their educational studies to a different location within the Lind-Ritzville Cooperative School Districts.

The Steering Committee is comprised of teachers, union representatives, school administrators and parents. All of the meetings were held as a special school board meeting, with school board members from both Lind and Ritzville being present and engaged in the discussions.

Lind-Ritzville Superintendent Matt Ellis facilitated the meetings, and began with explaining the purpose is to work collaboratively to find a solution for students next school year. The main categories being considered during the meetings were the monetary, human capital, legal, educational and equitable implications for each option.

On Jan. 10, the Steering Committee voted for the two options they believed would be best for consolidation.

The decision was to continue to consider: relocating all LRHS students to Lind while sixth grade students would stay in their home district, and a hybrid-model, with kindergarten through fifth grade students staying in their home districts, sixth through ninth grade students being in Lind-Ritzville Middle School, and students in 10-12 would be relocated to Ritzville Grade School.

During the initial meeting, the Steering Committee discussed relocating all LRHS students into RGS, as well as moving all LRHS students to Lind.

For the RGS consolidation, the Steering Committee agreed it would be beneficial to keep all of the LRHS students together and still in Ritzville, it would be easier for scheduling purposes and the purchase of technology would be a future benefit to the district.

The issues committee members discussed were losing the ability to use the gym as it would become education space, disruption to RGS students and overall student learning, large class sizes, unnecessary costs, no library, and possible negative effects for Special Education students and their learning environment.

The scenario for moving all LRHS students to Lind had less negatives for committee members.

In Lind, students would have access to labs for science, home economics and vocational agricultural, there is a designated library for high school use, teacher collaboration would be improved, and LRMS students would benefit from having an opportunity to take higher level math classes.

The primary concerns included extracurricular schedules, staff transportation, food services, moving materials to Lind, reducing the amount of assets for Lind students, and the overall wear-and-tear to the facilities.

The committee also questioned the financial impact of both decisions, which option creates the best learning environment for students, the cost of utilities, the fire code restrictions and the potential need for more employees.

During the second meeting, the Steering Committee considered two “hybrid model” options.

One model kept K-5 in each district, included ninth grade students at LRMS, and moved grades 10-12 into RGS. The second option was maintaining K-6 in each district, putting grades 7-11 at LRMS, and transitioning only the LRHS seniors into the RGS building.

For the scenario leaving ninth grade students in Lind, committee members believed the positives were less impact to the Lind district, an easier “transition” for ninth grade students, more core classes available for freshmen, better balance in terms of amount of students in each building, sixth grade students would remain at LRMS, and each district would preserve their identity.

The issues includes not allowing ninth grade students to transition into high school, staff responsibilities with having high school students at LRMS, not providing extracurricular opportunities for freshmen, staff travel, concerns with transportation of staff cost, and certification restrictions of teachers.

For the option keeping only LRHS seniors in Ritzville, the benefits were allowing the gym to be utilized for events and not classrooms, 9-11 classes would have access to labs, more teacher-assistants would be available to Lind students and there would be more balanced student numbers in each building.

The negative impacts of the option included isolation of the seniors and the leadership they provide for other high school students, potential restriction of electives and extracurricular opportunities, the impact of split classes for LRHS teachers and students, and credit retrieval concerns.

One of the primary concerns was if moving only one class from LRHS to Lind would be enough of a shift for the RGS gym to not have to be utilized as educational space.

After the discussion, the Steering Committee voted anonymously for their top two options for next year’s consolidation, selecting the LRHS students moving to Lind and the option for only ninth grade students to be in Lind.

A smaller group of individuals from the Steering Committee will now meet with school board members to determine the better of the two options.

Because of the impact to both school districts, community forums will also be held to hear from residents of both districts.

Ellis explained ESD would like the decision made as soon as possible.

Ritzville School Board Member Reid Phillips stated the school boards want to move efficiently and effectively, but this is a major decision that deserves their time and attention.

The meeting concluded with an announcement from Business Manager Dana Telecky, who informed the Steering Committee the LRHS renovation project will now receive $6.1 million in state match money.

The District’s Project Manager from ESD 112 was able to secure the increase of funding, which was previously expected to be a $4.2 million state match.