The Butler Area School District is still working towards reorganizing its buildings and the superintendent would now like to form a large, informal committee of local residents to help guide the decision.
Superintendent Dr. Brian White outlined his plan during a school board meeting Monday. The committee is expected to be about 40 people- including parents, teachers, students, government and community representatives, local business owners, several school administrators, and two school board members.
The superintendent thinks it’s best if he’s not the facilitator of the group in order to ensure honest feedback.
Hopes are the committee will meet this fall. The school board didn’t take action on forming the group last night. Any final decision on reorganizing Butler’s schools would fall to the board.
There are currently four options on the table, three of which eliminate the aged Butler Middle School– formerly the Butler Jr. High– in the city of Butler.
“My hope is we can narrow these options down to two..and then one,” White said.
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The options include:
-Keeping things how they are
-Creating two middle schools for grades 5 and 6 instead of just one
-Putting fifth grade back in the elementary schools, 6-8 grade in a middle school, and 9-12 in a high school
-Putting 5-8 grade in an intermediate school and 9-12 in a high school
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The Butler School District began the process of reviewing the current school configurations in the fall of 2018.
“The impetus of this is the impending infrastructure renovations needed at the current middle school (old junior high school building),” Superintendent Brian White wrote in a letter to parents in June.
White also pointed to the district’s enrollment, which has declined over the past 10 years.
