Community Advisory Committees discusses
May 13, 2011
The Community Advisory Committee took another step toward answering the question – how might a merged Mayfield and Northville school look – as it met for the second time on Wednesday, May 11 at Mayfield High School. (see the complete agenda PDF).
SES Study Team led the group step by step through multiple sets of data related to the districts’ elementary programs, district geography, travel distances between the buildings, class sizes, and building capacities. The committee will ultimately use that data to help define what are the possible opportunities and challenges of a merged school district.
Elementary Programs
The team showed data
(see PDF of data)about each district’s current pre-K through sixth
grade elementary programs. The committee tackled questions such as:
“What are specific ideas about and examples of enhanced elementary
program/learning opportunities that are possible for the pupils of the
two districts if resources were available through reorganization?" and
“How and why will these possible enhanced learning opportunities benefit
the elementary children of the two-district region?”
The CAC subsequently analyzed the opportunities and challenges regarding
the elementary program and school district reorganization.
Mayfield Elementary School principal Nicholas Crisone and teacher Tara
Caraco attended the meeting along with Northville Elementary Principal
William Crankshaw and teacher Lanie Groff as guest resources for the
committees.
“They were there to listen to and provide feedback to the members of the CAC about the elementary program and ask questions regarding clarifications and different ideas they had about the program. They had a rich exchange with the CAC about the pre-K through six programs and how they’re delivered,” SES member Douglas A. Exley said.
“For more than hour, there were questions about special education delivery, class size, math and science programs, the idea of STEM (or science/technology/engineering/math) programs, and opportunities for kids outside of the core area.
“It was very productive. At this meeting, the committee was able to dig into some data. The committee members were able to learn about pupil capacity and if some type or reorganization took place, what might be available at different schools.”
Answering the questions
During the meeting, the study team also presented a list of questions
that combined questions identified by the Community Advisory Committees
on April 25 with those that both boards of education and the school
district superintendents identified at a prior joint planning session.
The questions will help guide the study. (See
PDF of Questions).
They also followed-up on 2011-20 enrollment projections for each
district and census data, both of which had been presented at the last
meeting.
Link to Census Data
Link to Enrollment projections
Driving Distances
Wednesday’s meeting also included data about the miles buses would travel between the two districts. According to data from the SES Group, it is 10.25 miles from Northville High School to Mayfield Jr./Sr. High School, and 9.57 miles to Mayfield Elementary School. To get a better picture of a reorganized district, the committee examined a map outlining the two school districts. A separate chart showed the area of each district and the relative mileage between the various schools (see the map PDF).
The next meeting is scheduled from 6-9 p.m. Wednesday, June 1 at Northville CSD Library.