NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson USD 308 Superintendent Dr. Dawn Johnson is still hearing from members of the committee created almost a year ago on the future of USD 308 facilities.
"We're just having longer conversations," Johnson said. "There's about 50 folks on our facility committee meeting and we're just taking the time to really walk through some key components of who we are in 308 and who we want to be in 50 years from now. What do we want to look like?"
Part of the discussion began with the continued decrease in USD 308 enrollment over the last several years.
"Instead of maybe just deciding on some one-off buildings, the committee has really come to really talking about entry points and transitions," Johnson said. "That's really their key. When students come into our system as pre-K students, what does that look like? We're having long conversations about how to best serve those students, how to get pre-K three and four-year-olds ready for kindergarten, because that's really key nowadays, is to be ready for kindergarten, so that you don't get behind in those later years. Then, we're talking about the transitions, those transitions from 7th grade to 8th grade, those middle school teen years are really critical for students."
Part of the discussion is whether or not continuing to have single-year buildings for 7th and 8th grade is still the best way to do those transitions.
"Ideally, what people would love to have is what we see in a lot of other communities, is a 6-8 building," Johnson said. "How do we do that with the buildings that we have? That's the conversation that we have. How can we either expand some of our middle schools, you know, part of our constraints are, there's just not a lot of land within the footprint of USD 308. Those become challenges."
The district would like to have focus group meetings before the first of the year, but scheduling may be a challenge with the upcoming holidays.
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