Grade realignment opposed

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MARQUETTE - The Marquette school board could easily leave multiple groups dissatisfied when it decides the district's future for the next several years.

On Tuesday, the board will hold a work session to review recommendations made to realign the groupings of grades in district buildings. The session is at 5:15 p.m. at the Marquette Senior High School library.

The board plans to have small and large group conversations to discuss the topic.

The 2009 and Beyond Grade Alignment Committee - made up of several parents, one board member and about a dozen administrators and teachers from Marquette Area Public Schools - has recommended three groupings of students in district buildings - kindergarten through fourth grade in one group, fifth through eighth grades in another, and ninth through 12th grades in the third.

That grouping is opposed by a loosely organized group of parents with children in lower grades, which has been pushing hard for fifth and possibly sixth graders to be placed with elementary-age students.

Another group isn't directly involved in this debate, but may become involved as the district is also considering closing one of its buildings because of shrinking enrollment and state aid.

The G.R.E.A.T. Project is advocating to keep Graveraet Intermediate School open, both as a school and keeping its Kaufman Auditorium as an academic and community gathering place.

Several community foundations, including the L.G. Kaufman Endowment Fund, Frazier Fund and Shiras Institute, have come out publicly to support continued use of that school and auditorium.

All this is set against the background of a shrinking school budget and spiraling deficits that has forced the board and Superintendent Jon Hartwig and his staff to consider and probably make big spending cuts in the next several years, if not sooner.

"We wouldn't be having these conversations if we didn't have this serious of a budget deficit," Hartwig said over the weekend.

Hartwig pointed out at last Monday's regular school board meeting that the district passed a budget in June that contained a deficit of nearly $1.5 million, which will be covered by the district's fund balance, a surplus of money built up from past years.

At the end of this school year, that surplus will be less than half of what it was in 2004, dropping from $10.3 million to $4.6 million.

To make matters worse, Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the state legislature proposed cuts twice in October to state aid paid to districts totaling nearly $300 per student for the current year.

When combined with the loss of about 25 more students than it originally planned for, MAPS is looking at a revenue that comes up more than $1 million short of what was budgeted for this summer.

Whether further tapping the fund balance, making cuts or a combination of those will be implemented has yet to be decided, according to Hartwig.

On the subject of grade realignment, students this year are in four groups, according to Hartwig - grades K-4 are in three elementary schools, Cherry Creek, Sandy Knoll and Superior Hills; fifth grade alone is at Graveraet; grades 6-8 are at Bothwell Intermediate; and grades 9-12 are at Marquette Senior High School.

Some affiliated with the parents' group, informally known as the MAPS Parent Group, said they were dissatisfied with their ability to have a voice with the realignment group.

"A big concern of mine was that I was just a single voice on the committee," said Julie Hoffman, who sat on the 2009 and Beyond group.

She added that she was the only parent with a child in fifth grade or below who attended all six committee meetings between July 1 and when it issued its recommendation on Oct. 9. Hoffman said another parent with a younger child dropped out soon after the group formed and wasn't replaced, while a third parent currently only has children in high-school grades.

The group began meeting last spring when a proposal was made to place more than 50 fifth graders into a "pod" classroom with several teachers.

When realignment was discussed then, that idea was one of a number of possibilities, according to Hartwig.

"That scenario was set aside," the superintendent said.

Nevertheless, more than 100 parents attended each of three parents' group meetings at that time to discuss the issue and what they could do, according to Matt Williams, another parent with the group.

"Our No. 1 concern was class size," said Hoffman. "No. 2 was the 5-8 vs. K-5 grouping of students."

Hartwig says he understands their concern, even if he doesn't agree with all their misgivings about the placing fifth graders with older students.

"I share the opinion that K-5 was a great alignment for this school district," he said about an alignment that the district once had. "Our achievement was excellent with this division of grades.

"But there is no perfect alignment. Studies show that whether fifth graders are placed with elementary grades or are in the middle school alignment, there is no difference in achievement.

"The two things that the research show that make a difference are effective teaching and the quality of the leader in the building. If you've got a great principal who is engaged and really working with teachers, than you can have teaching effectiveness."

Hoffman disagreed, pointing out a study as a doctoral thesis at the University of Michigan and looking at Michigan students that showed test scores were better for fifth graders in districts where they were placed with elementary students.

"We came up with several scenarios that might allow the district to achieve this," Hoffman said, including ones where grades seven-12 or eight-12 could be placed at MSHS, a building that houses barely more than half the students it did when student enrollments were much higher.

There could be four elementary schools instead of just three, but they would house grades K-6 instead of the current K-4.