The principal at Loranger Memorial School in Old Orchard Beach is proposing a new, unified schedule. LIZ GOTTHELF/Journal Tribune
OLD ORCHARD BEACH — The principal of Loranger Memorial School is proposing a schedule change that would align the start and end times for all grades.
The school serves Old Orchard Beach students from third to eighth grade. Students from third to fifth grade start school at 8 a.m. and end at 2:15 p.m. Students in grades 6 through 8 start school at 8:30 and end at 2:45 p.m.
“We have one school, one staff, one student body, one school community, but two schedules,” said Loranger Principal Barbara Fletcher at last week’s Regional School Unit 23 board meeting.
Fletcher said the school currently has limited flexibility in scheduling staff for common times, arrival and dismissal times, and lunches and recess. She said there area two separate procedures for arrival and dismissal and two different breakfast schedules.
She said the school also has limited ability to schedule common times for school-wide events in which all grade levels participate together. Fletcher said having two different schedules impacts the school’s ability to have school-wide staff meetings and professional development sessions.
Having a single, school-wide schedule at Loranger would allow the full staff to consistently meet together to improve instruction and educational opportunities for students, and would allow the school to streamline special education services, Fletcher said.
It would also allow for staff who work in the lower and upper grades of the school to participate in school-wide professional work and would allow for a school-wide schedule with longer blocks of time for optimal student learning, Fletcher said.
“One schedule would allow LMS to operate as one united school community,” said Fletcher.
Under the proposed plan, the start time for the entire school would be 8:30 a.m., with school ending at 2:45 p.m. The proposal would have all students from third to twelfth grade riding buses together and bus aides would be hired to ensure student safety, said Fletcher.
Currently, students from pre-K through fifth grade are on one bus schedule, while students from sixth to twelfth grades are on another.
School Board Chairman David Boudreau said he was in favor of the new schedule if school administration said it was best for the school, however he was not in favor of the proposed bus plan. He said he was concerned with young students riding with much older students, and overhearing some of the language and topics of conversation from older students.
If the board was considering this change, Boudreau said, he would like to hold a public forum to get input from parents.
School Board member Peter Flaherty said he thought two different schedules in the same school must be challenging.
“It just makes sense to be on one schedule,” said Flaherty. “I’m all in favor of one schedule for one school.”
Flaherty said he thought the proposed bus schedule would be something parents had concerns with, but he thought the staff could find a way to address transportation to eliminate problems.
From what he had observed, Flaherty said, Old Orchard Beach High School students were very respectful and caring and he thought the school could consider a buddy system pairing high school students with younger students.
Fletcher and RSU 23 Superintendent of Schools John Suttie said they would reach out to other school districts that had a wide age range of students riding buses together and get their input.
Fletcher said she worked very closely with the transportation department and the school bus drivers and would continue to work with them should the school bus schedule change to ensure students were well-taken care of and supported, and to circumvent the concerns people had regarding the proposed transportation change.
Should the school district decide to change to the proposed bus schedule, Suttee said, the hiring of bus aides was “non-negotiable.”
The school district wanted to hear from parents regarding the proposal, Suttie said.
“We’re open to any and all ideas, thought, opinions,” he said.
— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 780-9015 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.
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