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Show Sunday Also in this section: rl. Primetimc F3 U 18, !() Opinions F4 Gardening F5 Nebo looks alt Parents share concerns, opinions solutions to overcrowding woes T""-"- " on situation at intermediate school By LEANN MOODY Herald Correspondent SPANISH FORK "Sheer Numbers" is the key word to the problems facing the Spanish Fork Intermediate School as school board members look at 30 pages of reports and figures compiled by a task force committee. - Members of that committee presented the school board with a preliminary report and proposals Wednesday at their monthly meeting. The task force began out of efforts by the Intermediate School administration and a group of concerned parents to get something done about the overcrowding at the school. The school physical plant is currently functioning at 150 percent of capacity. This, according to Principal Lee Hill, is a serious matter. "Our major concern is the sheer number which this building was not constructed to handle," said Hill. He noted that a new hallway on the middle school side of the building had greatly helped. Students say there is a problem getting to class. "If you want to get there early you have to dodge people," said one student. Students said that they get blamed for trash in the hall but add it's not all candy wrappers but papers you can't pick up because of full halls. Students say that class sizes are larger but add the new triad classes which are advance placement are a step in the right direction. "You get used to the crowded halls," said one student who noted it had been like that since she had attended the school. "It's hard sometimes because we would really like small classes and more individual attention from the teachers." Part of the task committee's report deals with the physical plant. According to Hill, the proposal of a new exterior hall on the south side of the building would open up more classroom space and better utilize the building. School administrators say not only the classrooms are crowded but also the lunchroom and audi torium. The gym area is so full that physical education classes have been cut to half of a year. Administrators say even at that there are four teachers at three stations which at times has been difficult for students and teachers. Vice Principal Mark Koyle said overcrowding in the halls also can create a problem with students bumping into each other, creating physical confrontations which sometimes are carried into the classroom. Members of the task commission are quick to point out that the report is very preliminary but they also asked the board to move quickly on a decision. Board members agreed to study the report and meet with the commission within the week to look at what would be done. The task commision consists of Dan Jacobson, chairman and vocational director for the district; Mary Lois Clayson, PTA president and parent; J. Merrill Hal-lateacher; Richard Heap, city engineer and parent; Principal Hill; Mary Ann Hillier, teacher; Dr. Richard Johnson, boardmem-be-r and parent; Chuck Cummins, parent and spokesman. The commission was asked by the district to identity problems encountered in the total education process of students at the Intermediate School. They also gave the board back some preliminary figures from a questionaire which was sent to parents. That survey said that parents by a 1 margin did not want the sixth grade located at the Intermediate School. Parents, by 1 again, felt that sixth graders would perform better outside the Intermediate School. The survey received a positive "no" to the idea of moving ninth grade students to the high school to relieve overcrowding. Cummins told the board that by the next task force meeting the survey would be completely finished and would then be released to the public. Principal Lee Hill said an important factor in the commission and the survey will be getting the information back to the parents so " i r iiwf- if m That proposal calls for classes or limited team teaching. The task commission looked at this on a permanent situation and proposed a building plan that would cost $990,000. Reflected in that cost is bringing all elementary schools to the level where they could accept the sixth grade and offer a good program. The facility would have rest rooms, multipurpose rooms, classrooms and a hall between the rooms so that students could move about without concern with the weather. Advantages sited by the task commission were: giving students another year to mature before facing increased social pressures of older students; would allow them to be children longer; gives J a :rs - ir; , Herald Plitito Trent Nelson Students cram into the halls of Spanish Fork Intermediate School during a class change. they understand the situation. The task commission looked at availability of facilities for science, vocational and physical education programs. One of the possible solutions proposed by the group is to expand teaching contracts to an eight or nine period day. This would mean a teacher could teach during their prep period and get paid for doing this. Advantages are a maximum use of classrooms and facilities plus availability of the school to the public. The commission noted that parents in the survey favored this option. Disadvantages could come in transportation and longer days for teachers and administration. The cost to the district is estimated at $2,800 per class added. The pod system will continue to be used and looked at to see if it can be expanded. School officials say expansion could become a scheduling nightmare. On the positive side, the current pod system has shown it does ease transition for sixth graders and gives a more elementary type setting. students a continuity of one main teacher and would permit teach teaching and more time to prepare for intermediate school scheduling. There are disadvantages and elementary principals point to the fact that all five schools are full or overcrowded at the present. District officials look at the cost of permanent additions, plus the fact that Rees and Park Schools do not have the ground space for additions. Students would not have the specialized teachers in art, music and band, and physical education, plus the fact that the present sixth grade faculty is not in favor of the plan and some are not certified to teach in an elementary setting. Out of this option came two recommendations to help with the current situation and that was to study how the transition for students into the intermediate school could be eased and to see if sixth and seventh grade students could be bused separate of eight and ninth grade students. At least three quarters of the faculty feel that the sixth grade should stay where they are since most children make the transition well. They claim the curriculum is better because it is more stimulating and challenging and the teachers are specialized. Elementary principals said they would cooperate with what it decided, but also feel it would be best to keep the sixth grades at the intermediate school. In looking at limited amount of pupil space in fixed areas such as shop, home economics, physical education, biology and P.E. the task commission has asked that school be looked at. The commission said they realize the concept did not have public support but suggested members of the Cache District could explain their secondary system and that it be studied. The commission also asks that the board look at a possible remodeling of science rooms to allow for more and smaller classes in that area. The cost of that year around conversation would be about 0 per classroom. Class size was also looked at with the commission again sug$5,-00- gesting extended contract for teachers. Also noted by the commission and the administration the number of advanced placement classes is being worked on and will be expanded in coming years. The commission told the board that a solution needed to be found and that action was needed soon if a solution was to be in place by the coming school year. Move 6th grade to Rees? Keep 6th grade in elementary? A second option being looked at would be for each grade school to retain the sixth grade in their present elementary buildings. It was the consensus of the committee that looked at this proposal that sixth graders would remain at the Spanish Fork Intermediate School but scheduling and other variables should be studied and changed to ensure better transition and more support for those students. Administrators at the intermediate school say this is already in progress and some options began several years ago including pods of classes designed to help sixth graders adjust better. x As the task committee looked at options available probably the least expensive and the most workable option for solving the problem of overcrowding at the Intermediate School was moving the sixth grade to Rees School. Among concerns about making the Rees School a sixth grade school is opposition from the Rees parents not wanting their children moved from unique programs, including some for behaviorally disordered children. Parental concern with this option also centered on moving current students to other schools within walking distance and the children crossing Main Street and 400 North, two main city streets. Another comes from teachers currently at the middle school who said they would move but would feel the loss of current curriculum and teaching facilities. This option is also not a favorite of the school board because they have considered closure of the Rees School due to its age. Among other problems involved in this option are limited play- ground facilities and not enough property for the school to meet the building codes with additions. With an estimated class size of 425 students, more classrooms would be needed. There are 12 classrooms at the Rees School and the task commission said one more portable would be needed. Space would again be a problem with gymnasium facilities or a multi-purpos- e room needed. Again, moving in a two-rooportable and combining the two rooms to make one large room would handle this problem. Also suggested was construction of a portable with a high ceiling to take care of this problem. Lunch room and library space would also need to be handled. The report provides solutions as servsimple as installing fold-uing tables in the walls of the current lunch room. Busing was also a concern of this option. The district says they p do not like to load and unload students on existing roadways. h There is not a at the Rees School. The task commission suggested drive-throug- that the 10 buses involved could be located on the west, north and east sides of the school. This was not ideal, said the commission, but could be considered. The bottom line to all of this is the cost of tne proposal, which is broken down into two alternatives. The first alternative would cost the district $.i7u,0(ti) and the second alternative which calls for Salem to retain their sixth grade would cost $10(i.()0(). The Salem alternative would cost more because of additional portables needed if that school keeps their sixth grade. One unit and one high ceiling unit would be built plus one portable moved in. These options both cover the costs of needed space, and facilities at grade schools absorbing the Rees students. (3I)13?VflkiliiIdiO Biological diversity, cultural diversity go hand in hand Anyone who has ever savored the .smell of balsam wood knows that the great forests of New England are among the most special places on earth. This land of blackflies and maple syrup, birch-har- k canoes and brook trout, stretching from New York to Maine, has remained one of the wildest and most wonderful places in North America. But this usually tranquil land is now the field of a divisive con-fl- u t. A fight over its future is in full rage, p.tm g defenders of the wond-pnui , ".' 'i liiiinpMi: s t industry against stale and ' Apanded ltdt t;i rol i conservation. i! the fight is some- The fo "Wii llit.rfi Knrnkt i tliiiit; i a FI.Si." Sponsored Lands Mu.! b the My. s of New York. Now li.imiv hip-- Vermont and Maine ,il. .:..: v ith the federal government ise is intended :, to (' n: .a';.te strategies for ; . cer pre-s(i;- t'.e lei'ion's wilderness and economy. A final report will be sent to Congress in April. But in the meantime, it is polarizing New England. Citizens are asking a question that has no happy answer: What is more important, the economy or environment? The issue has arisen with surprising suddenness. People in this granite-rimme- d region long felt secure that their remote forests would remain unchanged. But in 1982, Sir James Goldsmith, the English corporate raider, acquired Diamond International Corp. in a leveraged buvout: and in 1!88 Goldsmith sold big chunks of the company's 1.7 million acres to developers fiT.OOO acres in New Hampshire. 23.000 in Vermont and .000 in New York's Adirondack Mountains New England's illusion of invulnerability pricked, its d.irk f..rests suddenly seemed ripe f..r pit king. L'nlike the west, where the federal go . i i i,.iient owns Alston Chase ON THE ENVIRONMENT" than half the land. New England forests are controlled b timber companies. Fearing the north woods were a foiled calf leing offered up on the altar of Wall Street (peculation. Congress and the four states set H.S to idcntil up in rWl the 'alternative strategies to protect the long-terintegrity and tradition. il uses of such lands." The study team quickly f..unl slep New Kng'i.ind had entered a new era Pulp and paper mills wete dunging hand.;. Unoming p!a- more things ol corporate raiders whose tune honons stretched no further than their next interest payment I tn interstate highway system put )'i million people wiliun a day's drive of parts ol the Big Noith. Mi. h as Maine's Mooe-lie.o- i Lake Speculators With handle. k o! millions of dollars in their pock'ts were subdividing rural Warbiuks. l,ke Da Thanks to theM devel. ipimnts, protecting the notth wimmL has become a challenge. Met ...'iiiing this, the NKLS team. st.i,-j-enn- in a draft report last October, suggested that traditional remedies, such as land acquisition and regulation, would not rescue the legion. Instead, it suggested a combination of strategies including tax incentives, regional zoning, conservation easements and community improvement. Is The prop'" are meeting with wilting heat irom critics. Environmentalists think tax incentives would be expensive and ineffective and be lieve zoning regulations will inevitably have more gum than teeth. Instead, they want massive state and federal purchases of the land. The wood products industry argues that well enough should be left alone. Pulp ami paper companies have preserved this region for hundreds of years But by asking citizens to choose between their economy and the environment, these advcrsai ics are plaung a game that no one will win. Many public lands, thanks to mismanagement, are losing biological diversity even faster than private lands. And in the era of perestroika, everyone tins side of Albania realizes that central planning must fail. Neverwould theless, environmentalists nationalize much of New England. And yet the industry, in trouble, cannot guarantee the region's future. The task is not to choose between people and the environment, but to rescue both. Saving the northern forests and their peoples requires strengthening local institutions against encroachments by multinational corporations, hiiicauerats and even national envn onmental groups. This means aiding and coordinating commuiiitv land-usplanning thioiii h.'tit the region and providing incentives for ( t.in palm s to be good ecological Cltlt ns. wood-produc- wood-product- s |
