PLUMSTED – A new school year has dawned and Superintendent David Ytreboe said that the school district was ready for it.
The superintendent joined staff at the Primary School who were putting the finishing touches in setting up and moving in some new supplies for the building that has been closed to students since 2019.
The Primary School that opened in 2005 is being used for the district’s pre-school program. Only last year there had been consideration to sell the school building located on Evergreen Road. Now, in addition to be used for pre-school classes it will also serve to once again house administrative offices.
He noted the history of the building saying, “it was used for school funded – but very different with what we have now – pre-school. It was also kindergarten up to second grade here and it was right before Covid in 2019 is when S-2 started kicking in and they (Board of Education) made the decision to close this building and shift the administration back into the elementary (school) to sustain it.”
S-2 is the name of the bill that cut state aid to a number of local districts, causing them to make difficult decisions.
“The reason we were able to reopen it was based on the pre-school and the funding we received from the state for the eight classrooms. There was a big debate on what we would be doing with this building. When I came in (in January) there was some exploration as to what we could do with this vacant building. When I arrived, it was just a superintendent’s office, central administration and business office,” Ytreboe said.
The building was underused. Meanwhile, they were looking to renovate the elementary school and find additional classroom space.
He said that after touring the Primary Schools and seeing all its facilities, “it was very easy to say this is the solution. We are really excited to open this school up, eight pre-school room classes, one disabled pre-school classroom. We have a total of nine on (one side of the building) and we have three kindergarten classrooms which is part of our reorganization of the district based off of our S-2 challenges.”
