Grade-level configuration influenced by four factors
Kentucky School Advocate
May 2018
By Matt McCarty
Staff writer
Don Martin, a former superintendent with experience in facilities planning, says four variables usually dictate a district’s grade configuration.
• Geography – In some areas of Kentucky, grade configuration is dictated by the landscape, Martin said. He said the Kentucky Department of Education prefers a school to have an enrollment of more than 300. While there are schools with fewer than 300, “if you’re going to build a new one, they encourage you to have more than 300 in a school for the sake of the taxpayer,” said Martin, a KSBA consultant.
In some isolated areas, the school will have to be a P-8 or a K-8 so it will have an enrollment of 300-400. “In that case, the district really doesn’t have much of a choice because geography will dictate in order to have a school of the proper size and not be a financial drain on the district that you have to have more grades in the school,” Martin explained.
• Economy – In several locations in the state – especially smaller communities – districts have had to combine schools for economic reasons. As the population in some areas declines, “you can’t operate a school with 80 or 90 kids sometimes so you’re going to be combining schools and grades in some instances in order to stay afloat,” Martin said.
• Growth – On the flip side, some districts are experiencing population booms, or are anticipating population increases, that will impact the district’s grade alignment. “Sometimes just the growth of the district, when you compare that to the existing facilities, that will dictate how many kids are going to be in schools,” Martin said.
He said grade configuration goes along with that because sometimes districts don’t have the bonding potential to construct the building they may want to build to accommodate certain grades. “So they are confined to use existing facilities and try to match grade configurations up to facilities.”
• Curriculum – Martin said sometimes a district will decide that having all students in a grade level in one building will provide more opportunities and programs for those students. “If you have all K-8 schools, then your resources for those seventh- and eighth-graders are really spread thin, much more so than if you bring all those into one location where you can offer more programs,” he said.
Martin said he primarily sees changes driven by rapid growth or decline.
“Both of them can present challenges,” he said. “Declining enrollment districts, you’re going to have to have longer bus rides for kids, and that’s not always the best thing. But sometimes there’s no other choice if you have no other recourse about building.
“And then the opposite extreme, you have rapidly growing districts that are continually building new schools. They’re having to redistrict every two to three years and possibly that could involve some grade changes, too, at some of those schools.”