OOLITIC – During a work session Thursday, North Lawrence Community School Board Trustees discussed the closing of Oolitic Middle School.
Though no decision was made Thursday night. Officials have recommended closing OMS, following issues with staff shortages, low student enrollment, and low numbers in extra-curricular activities.
Currently, only seven students are attending the school.
The school board has requested to develop a survey of parents to see if they would send their students to Oolitic Middle School, saying this is a “starting point” for making a decision. The school board is hoping to have the results of that survey by April 30th.
Earlier, Oolitic Middle School Assistant Principal, Kurt Godlevske, urged the board to move all middle schoolers to Bedford Middle School, saying a more collaborative teaching environment would provide better education for students.
NLCS School Board Trustee Adam Parsley made the following statement:
To be clear about my stance on the topic of Oolitic Middle School: I believe the Board needs to take the time to look at the overall Middle School scenario(s) and the path forward in the form of a feasibility study, which I do not think can be performed, digested, and acted upon in time for the opening of the 2023-2024 school year. If we take a thorough look at several major factors – enrollment, staffing, districting, grade levels (should or shouldn’t 6th grade be in MS?), offerings – and decide that a two-middle school system can work and is best for the community, then that’s what we should do.
But I don’t believe we have studied the issues enough or looked at different courses of action adequately to make an informed decision. I didn’t think there was enough time last October when I was running for school board, or in Jan when I was sworn in, or even now, to make this decision by August of this year. There are foundational issues we need to address before we can know what the best path forward is. We need our new Superintendent. We need to attract and retain teachers. We need to better understand our financial footing. We need to know how to give our kids the absolute best of opportunities such that NLCS is the destination of choice for education in our community.
I’ve lived through the pain of the OMS “closure”. I hated to see it close. I went there myself, my oldest child was there at the end of 2020, the last “normal” year before consolidation. My daughter was there as a 7th grader last year and we ultimately elected to send her to BMS as an 8th grader this year. And I’m glad we did. She has had more opportunities at BMS as an 8th grader than she had as a 7th grader at OMS. I realize this is not everyone’s experience. Until we can figure out how to make opportunities available for all middle schoolers across the board, we have to give our kids the best we can. And until we can unravel a whole lot of interdependent and interrelated issues, my feeling is that BMS is the best option for the 2023/2024 school year.
I’ll look at all the data and feedback that I can get, but based just on current enrollment, I think that OMS, if hastily reopened this August, would be a shell of its former self and would struggle to offer kids what they can get at BMS currently. Not saying it’s the permanent solution, but I think it’s what’s best at least for the 23/24 school year.
I’ll share the enrollment data that I’ve put together and reviewed with the Board in the work session tonight. I’ll share the outline of a feasibility study that I recommend we use at least as a starting point to take a good hard look at this decision’s merits, such that we can make a well-informed decision, then plan and execute that decision in a well-coordinated effort for the 2024-2025 school year. If that decision is a two-MS system, that’s fine. I’m not against OMS. I’m for giving the absolute best we can to all of our 7th and 8th graders and continuing to build back NLCS to be the best it can be. But that will take time.
In the race for school board, I ran on improving our leadership, taking care of our teachers, and being data-driven and transparent. I also said it wouldn’t be easy or fun and that it would take time to rebuild. I’m for taking the time that I think this decision requires and making the best decision we can make.
I only speak for my own views on this topic, not the Board itself. These are my opinions only.
