The plan was revised from its original strategy to expand Central Academy to help accommodate hundreds of more students from throughout the Butler County district.
Monday evening’s Middletown Board of Education meeting saw some members who rejected Superintendent Marlon Styles Jr.’s original $10 million proposal in January, give initial backing to this new one.
“I appreciate the one building solution,” said school board member Michelle Novak. “This isn’t just something great for Rosa Parks. It’s great for the whole district because it will alleviate space concerns all over the district, so it’s going to be good for all our (school) buildings.”
Under the new plan, some families of elementary students around the district would have an option to apply for enrollment at the expanded Rosa Parks, which will feature 13 new classrooms by August 2021, if the board approves plan later this month.
Fellow board member Anita Scheibert also expressed her initial back to Styles during the board meeting, saying “in the meetings we had with (school) staff members, they overwhelmed me with their enthusiasm for this project.”
“I think it’s very exciting. This will be a wonderful opportunity for many students in the city,” said Scheibert.
Rosa Park teacher Debbie Helton agreed, saying after watching the board meeting “I love this plan.”
“Our enrollment has been going up and up and can’t support that now,” said Helton. But she added 13 more classrooms and more “learning spaces” will help greatly.
“We have so many teachers who want to do new and innovative things, they want to do small group (learning), where you can spread them (students) where they can work. But it’s very difficult to do those things when you don’t have the space to do it,” said Helton.
Board member Todd Moore, however, questioned the new plan and requested enrollment projections from district officials he could study before the board decides on the project at the end of this month.
“Do we need 13 new classrooms to reduce class sizes in the district?” Moore asked Styles.
Under Styles’ revised plan, Rosa Parks enrollment of 575 students will grow to 800 by the time school starts on the expanded campus in August 2021.
The superintendent said community input from a series of public meetings in recent weeks, combined with architectural and engineering studies of all seven of the district’s elementary schools showed “Rosa Parks was determined to be the best site.”
“This is a positive, $10 million opportunity,” Styles told the board.
He added though enrollment projections have Middletown adding more students in the coming year, “this is not only an enrollment problem but also a learning space problem.”
Styles contended the modernization of learning reforms his leadership team began in 2017 will require not only smaller classroom sizes but expanded learning spaces within existing elementaries.
The new plan’s presentation was the first of two public readings before the board and members took no action of the proposal.
Board members will not vote until after the second reading scheduled for their April 29 meeting.
Later this month Middletown’s school board will decide on a $10 million expansion of Rosa Parks Elementary.
Middletown Schools’ recent building boom by the numbers:
* $96 million: Costs of building a new middle school, renovating and expanding adjacent Middletown High School.
* $10 million: Leftover amount allowed to city school officials who want to alleviate overcrowding in district’s seven elementary schools.
* 28: The number of students now in some schools’ elementary classes.
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