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Show They would rather stay than switch b Nan Chalal Some say that the proposal to ask the middle school and the high school to switch buildings is a dead issue. But the Treasure Mountain Middle Mid-dle School Community Council Coun-cil wants to make sure that no one tries to revive it. The council recently drafted a list of more than 20 arguments against the switch. "We've been told that it was just an idea, that it won't happen," said council member mem-ber Mary Hanscom. "But we've also heard that the landscaping of the middle school playing fields is being delayed until this issue is resolved. The concensus of the middle school community council is that the recommendation, which came from the elementary elemen-tary school representatives on the Critical Building Needs Committee, is impractical imprac-tical and uneconomical. According to the council, the middle school was designed specifically for the age group it now serves. For instance, it has two wings in order to separate fifth and sixth grade students from the seventh and eighth graders as requested by parents, and the lockers are scaled down in size. The greenhouse and band facilities are essential to the middle school curriculum curricu-lum and are not available in the high school building, the report states. The report also addresses the areas in w hich the middle school could not meet the high school's needs. The middle school has no typing room, and neither the gym nor the locker space would solve the current problems at the high school, the report says. According to the report, both schools need to expand their math and science facilities. The proposed switch would also mean that the high school football field would be located at a considerable distance from the high school. The Critical Building Needs Committee's proposal included a plan to return the fifth graders to the elementary elemen-tary school. However, according to the concerned parents of the middle school council, the students in the fifth grade in the middle school are happy there. "Last spring the district surveyed the fifth graders and found that an overwhelming majority of the students were happy at the middle school," said Hanscom. A similar student-run poll was reported in the Treasure Mountain Times (the school :. newspaper) this winter. Twenty nine of the 31 students who responded said that they liked the Treasure Mountain Middle School more than the elementary school. They liked having their own lockers and said that the classes were more interesting, the article state-ed. state-ed. The middle school council asked the Board of Education and the superintendent not to delay completing the playing fields for the middle school or the needed additions at the high school. |