School officials have scaled back a redistricting plan designed to ease overcrowding in Windham by sending some students to Raymond schools, which have space to spare.
Regional School Unit 14 officials announced before a public hearing on the plan Wednesday that they would send only students starting kindergarten through third grade next fall — about 70 children — to Raymond Elementary School.
The original plan called for sending 130 students in kindergarten through eighth grade to Raymond Elementary and Jordan-Small Middle School in Raymond, but officials now say students starting fourth to eighth grades in Windham will finish school there.
About 100 people attended Wednesday’s public hearing, the first of two on the plan. Most of the 34 people who spoke opposed it, but some said parents should be more open to the proposal, according to Superintendent Sandy Prince.
The proposal before the school board for the two-town district, which consolidated in 2008, is meant to alleviate overcrowding in Windham schools by moving students to schools in Raymond. Raymond schools have been under capacity since Raymond Elementary School was built in 2000. Enrollment hasn’t met projections since then, and both the elementary and Jordan-Small schools are half-empty.
Another part of the plan is to move fifth-graders from Jordan-Small to Raymond Elementary. This would better align Raymond’s elementary-middle school curriculums with those in Windham, where kindergarten through fifth grades attend elementary schools and sixth through eighth attend the middle school.
The plan still calls for eventually sending Windham students in kindergarten through eighth grade who live north of Whites Bridge Road to Raymond.
Currently in Windham, kindergarten through third-grade attends Windham Primary School, fourth- and fifth-graders go to Manchester School and Windham Middle School serves sixth through eighth grades.
Another forum next Wednesday at Raymond Elementary School will start at 6:30 p.m.
The school board may vote on the proposal on Oct. 17.
Staff Writer Leslie Bridgers can be contacted at 791-6364 or at:
lbridgers@pressherald.com
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