Stressing the need to factor in a wide range of opinions, board President Ed Sanderson said it is essential to ''see what kinds of choices different people in the community have in mind, so all parts of the district work together as a team. Teachers are sending 350 fifth-grade pupils home with surveys this weekend. The surveys are due back at the end of the month. A team of parents and school officials will then break down results and forward them to the school board. Depending on the feedback culled from the surveys, a series of public forums would give parents and community members a chance to air their views on the matter.
Trustees plan to tackle the issue in depth by springtime.
As classrooms at Golden West Middle School bulged at the seams, trustees on the previous board voted in 1995 to disburse them in elementary schools throughout the district. Then came class-size reduction. We're between a rock and a hard spot. A recently completed facilities master plan recommends expanding Golden West, adding and improving classrooms and moving sixth-graders back. Trustees are waiting until they hire a permanent superintendent to adopt the master plan, which lays out an itinerary for repairing aging schools and building new ones over the next two decades.