Seward High School Principal, Trevan Walker, Seward Middle School Principal, Jenny Martin, William H. Seward Elementary School Principal, Alan Haskins, district administration, and the school board request your thoughts and input about potentially consolidating Seward Middle School (6-8) into Seward High School (9-12), and William H. Seward Elementary (6th). No decisions have been made, and your thoughts are valuable.
Exploring the difficult concept of school consolidations or closures is a challenging task. However, with fiscal uncertainty at the state and borough levels, it is an act of due diligence to have the conversations in order to learn community concerns and thoughts, and share with families and staff. In that light, KPBSD is being proactive to explore a number of possibilities to meet potentially significant funding cuts in all areas of our district, including southern, central, and eastern peninsula schools.
- The high school has the capacity to accommodate the middle school students at this time, and this consolidation simplifies transportation issues.
- Closing the school would offer an annual savings of approximately $409,000 in operating costs
Seward area schools community meeting:
April 11, 2019, 6:30 p.m.
A community meeting for families, students, and staff will be April 11, 2019, at 6:30 PM, in the William H. Seward Elementary School. The meeting will be hosted by the school principals and Dr. Christine Ermold, KPBSD Director of Human Resources and Professional Development.
Seward Survey: Parent, student, and staff survey is open April 9 – 16, 2019 https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/27PHGPS
Timing of any potential school consolidations in the Seward or Homer areas is unknown, and at this time, school closures or consolidations would be dependent upon funding from the state in FY20 and beyond. It is unlikely that school closures would occur in the Seward or Homer area as fast as the 2019-2020 school year, unless the Governor’s proposed budget stands.
Link: School consolidation discussions webpage and report
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I am definitely not in favor of this consolidation. Middle Schoolers should not be in a high school setting. They need their own space for a few more years. These children are not young adults, and they have a different set of needs apart from High Schoolers. Don’t make a difficult time for kids more difficult.
I think that combining the middle schoolers and high schoolers is a bad idea. The high school kids will expose the younger kids to things they are not able to deal with. The middle school aged kids will learn bad habits and be in situations that may contain drugs, sex or just more grown up than they should be dealing with.