By SARIT LASCHINSKY

Special to The Press

During the beginning of the Northwestern Lehigh School Board’s March 3 workshop, Superintendent Jennifer Holman and Assistant Superintendent Troy Sosnovik discussed the district’s ongoing plans to examine an elementary school reconfiguration plan.

Holman said conversations about reconfiguration dated back to 2009 to address overcrowding at Northwestern Elementary.

In January 2020, the board voted to table the decision and keep the current structure for the 2020-21 school year.

Students in kindergarten through grade five attend both Weisenberg and Northwestern elementary schools, with students’ residences determining which school they attend.

Holman said the district is already planning for the 2021-22 school year and decisions on configuration still need to be made.

She explained the board had commissioned an outside professional study which recommended reconfiguration, specifically outlining kindergarten through grade three students attend Weisenberg while fourth- and fifth-graders attend Northwestern Elementary.

Holman also said the district outlined, in 2019, the educational benefits of reconfiguration to both current and future students, discussed inequities in resources, capacity and class size between the two schools, and reviewed future enrollment projects, which suggested that inequities would be exacerbated in the future due to the kindergarten through grade five enrollment projections for both schools.

Holman emphasized the ultimate goal is to “ensure equity and enhance the educational experience for our elementary students,” despite the identified challenges which still exist and have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our current data and research suggests some level of COVID mitigation strategies will exist into next school year,” Holman said, referring to social distancing, face covering and that 12 percent to 15 percent of district elementary families prefer online education.

She emphasized the decision made on reconfiguration, must plan for all possible eventualities for the 2021-22 school year.

Holman added the administration supports moving to a split K-3/4-5 model as the best educational decision for students, and will strengthen the learning community.

Sosnovik said the comprehensive process described by Holman had uncovered topics of consideration in five key areas.

Regarding enrollments, Sosnovik said the board had commissioned FutureThink to conduct an independent analysis of future enrollment, and had reported that kindergarten through grade five enrollment was projected to grow about 6 percent by the 2024-25 school year, a trend which mirrored projections from the state department of education.

Sosnovik said other findings related to class size identified inadequate space at Northwestern Elementary for current students, a problem worsened by pandemic social distancing requirements, adding that the district was fortunate that families were willing to change elementary schools to balance student populations and allow for a return to in-person instruction.

Additionally, regarding the facilities themselves, Sosnovik said district architects had identified that 16 rooms at Weisenberg were not being used for traditional classrooms while Northwestern Elementary “lacked the commensurate space which created challenges both instructionally and operationally,” and had also recommended several options to alleviate capacity concerns, including the split K-3/4-5 realignment.

Sosnovik said in a “normal” pandemic-free year,” instructional staff at Northwestern Elementary would still have to use spaces, such as hallways, to support student learning.

He said realignment would provide for an even distribution of school resources to create a more equitable learning environment for all students, while also affording the district the necessary overhead to accommodate more students if the enrollment reports are accurate.

Regarding transportation, Sosnovik said ride times had been a concern for all involved parties, and several ideas had been presented to the board for increasing the number of buses and drivers to maintain the district’s 60-minute ride time limit.

From an education standpoint, Sosnovik also said there were numerous positive benefits to reconfiguration, which afforded the highest levels of educational equity for elementary students, and would provide the same access to programs, services and resources at each grade level.

Sosnovik said having all sections in one building would create special education and socioeconomic balance across all grades and normalize class sizes, while also affording targeted focus on developmental needs of each grade and age level, consistent curriculum delivery, educational programming flexibility and earlier, established relationships with peers.

Sosnovik and Holman both said the reconfiguration would support the district’s mission vision and values, as outlined in their Future Ready Comprehensive Plan and Portrait of a Graduate, while also providing the district with the ability to be thoughtful and strategic with its resources to ensure future sustainability.

Sosnovik also said that the move would allow each school building to focus on developing parent programs tailored to creating “strong relationships and understanding of appropriate instruction and assessment practices,” noting the importance of a relationship between school and home for students.

Staff would also benefit from additional opportunities for focused professional development and centralized teacher leadership at each grade level.

Sosnovik also reflected on the challenges the district has faced due to COVID-19 and said in retrospect, some of the challenges with the return to in-person learning, mitigation strategies and providing synchronous online instruction could have been lessened if realignment had been conducted before the pandemic.

Moving forward, both said district considerations will take into account parent concerns, including any reconfiguration’s impact on families, transportation, distance between buildings, splitting siblings between grade levels and buildings, and other feedback.

Sosnovik said all these concerns are legitimate and must be taken into account.

Holman said the district would continue exploring the potential for realignment for the 2021-22 school year and explained the matter will be examined in the coming weeks, with additional data gathering.

She added specific recommendation will be presented to the board at its April 7 meeting.

She also said the district will send out a family survey to solicit feedback about parents’ intentions and instructional model preferences for the upcoming year, which will also be factored into the considerations.