Fifth-grade students in the central attendance area who thought they were headed to Beaty-Warren Middle School next year will have to hold that thought for one year.
The Warren County School District board of directors on Monday approved a resolution keeping those students at Warren Area Elementary Center for the 2012-2013 school year.
"The Board, based on the timetable for the renovation project, has determined that it would be in the best interest of the District to reassign the sixth grade Central Attendance Area students to attend another District building for one school year to promote student safety and preserve the quality of the education that can be provided to students," the resolution said, specifying that the move is for the 2012-2013 school year.
Board Vice President Donna Zariczny expressed concern that the resolution doesn't expressly contain an end date for the transition.
She said that she did not want this to be an open-ended switch and expressed concern about the possibility that the board might not follow through on returning sixth grade to Beaty.
Board member John Grant took the concern a step further. "Is the intent for a year or is the intent to accommodate the construction project?" he asked. "Could the construction project go longer than a year?"
"It will be longer than a year," Superintendent Brandon Hufnagel replied, indicating that the district is expecting that phase one of the project will be completed in time for the 2013-2014 school year, providing sufficient space to return sixth grade to Beaty.
"If there are construction delays, it could impact that," he cautioned.
But Grant pointed out that the intent of the switch was to promote student safety during construction and was not expressly linked to the time period of construction. "I'm comfortable how it is," he said.
The measure, not amended to include a specific end date, was passed unanimously.