Black Oak Mine district eyes middle school restructuring

COOL — Northside School hosted the first of three Black Oak Mine Unified School District public forums to look at the restructuring of the district's middle schools.

The Board of Trustees heard from the public at a recent forum led by Drew Woodall, director of educational services in the district. A committee has been formed to continue to work on the issue.

A loss of students, as well as a loss of teachers, have both resulted in middle school class sizes jumping to more than 32 students. The ratio of students to teacher is unacceptable to those involved.

Currently Northside School has 129 middle schoolers and Georgetown has closer to 100.

Options being discussed are: 1) sending all students to Georgetown, 2) sending all students to Northside, or 3) sending all 200 students to Golden Sierra. According to Woodall and the trustees, up-front costs will need to be scrutinized.

The audience at the Northside meeting consisted of approximately 35 people with one-third of them from Georgetown. Most parents in the audience were not in favor of having their children on the high school campus.

Whatever option seems most viable, the district does not want to be losing more students to either Placerville or Auburn, which is a possibility if they are to be bused to the farther school. Kelsey parents said it is just as easy for them to get their children to Placerville. Parents expressed their interest in still wanting the sports programs available to their children as well as social programs and leadership opportunities.

Another serious consideration is that the Boys and Girls Club is at Georgetown School and if students were moved, the grant money provided would be lost.

The American River Charter School is currently at the lower campus of Golden Sierra, another consideration of a potential move there; the needs of special education students must be considered as well. Transportation costs will play a part in the picture, as well as the fact that some students may be riding the bus for a few hours if being transported to the farther school site.

Board members asked whether a survey would be useful and most everyone agreed that it would be. The idea of rotating teachers seemed more economical to some than moving 100 or 200 students.

Two more public forums on this specific topic are planned. Georgetown School will host the board on Thursday, Oct. 27, and Golden Sierra is the final meeting place on Thursday, Nov. 17.

Concerned and interested parents can go to the district Website at bomusd.org where issues discussed will be available. Parents are encouraged to familiarize themselves with what happened at previous meetings, so that there will be no need to reiterate previously discussed information at each forum.

For more information, questions can be directed to dwoodall@bomusd.org or call the district office at 530-333-8300.