The Hoquiam School Board Thursday approved the grade reconfiguration of Lincoln and Central elementary schools; starting in the fall, each building will house grades two through five, rather than the split model used for more than 10 years. That means students can spend five years at the same location.

“As an educator I really am in favor of this change back to similar to what we had before, because regardless of technology or curriculum … kids need to have a home, especially as we’re coming out of a pandemic,” said board member Hoki Moir before the plan was unanimously approved. He said having kids in the same building for four years provides consistency and is important, “especially for our little ones, so I think it’s great timing on this move.”

For more than a decade the schools have split elementary students by grade — Lincoln taught second- and third-graders, Central fourth- and fifth-graders. Discussions over several years led to the reconfiguration plan approved Thursday.

Emerson School will continue in its current form as an early learning center, teaching kindergarten and first grade.

One of the biggest concerns heard during the plan’s formation was staffing, and Superintendent Mike Villarreal, who favors the plan, said he and the Hoquiam Teachers Association were able to hammer out an understanding earlier in the week and it should be final by the end of June.

“There are a lot of moving pieces to this, and on account of the surveys and needs of the district I feel really good about moving forward with this,” said Villarreal.

Parents and community members were provided a link to a survey where they could express their thoughts and concerns about the reconfiguration, and those results weighed heavily in the plan drafted by a committee made up of parents, school staff and administration, and community members.

“The results of the survey were over 85% in favor of the reconfiguration,” said Lincoln Elementary Principal Kent Nixon.

Concerns brought forward in the survey responses included a fear of increased bullying with grades 2 and 5 in the same building, staffing, and transportation concerns. As for bullying, Nixon said a committee of community members was brought in to specifically address that and other concerns with the plan.

“When we talked to them about concerns, bullying came up, and the response was that the level of bullying is not determined on the grade structure,” said Nixon. “It’s determined on how proactive the school is on the preventative measures as well as the proactive approach toward addressing bullying situations as they arise. So as we proactively address bullying both with love and concern for the victim as well as the bully, we will see bullying significantly reduced regardless of the grade structure.”

There will also be separate recess times for second grade and fifth grade students, so “there will be a natural separation of those grade levels throughout the structure of the day,” said Nixon.

As for transportation, Nixon said district transportation supervisor Ernie Lott was a significant part of the conversations about boundaries and bus routes and the reconfiguration’s impact on transportation, “and he’s confident that it is going to be successful.”

Others said they were concerned about an increased number of students in one building over the other, creating an imbalance that staff would have to deal with. But Nixon said “enrollment was largely unaffected with the reconfiguration.”

Moir said long-term stability will help returning elementary students in the fall, when the plan is to return to the traditional in-person, full-time educational model after more than a year of either all on-line or hybrid learning models due to the pandemic.

“It can’t be emphasized enough, the social and emotional piece” of an education model, said Moir. He said kids, especially that age, need consistency and to see the same faces before them in four-year chunks, rather than moving from one building to another after just two years.

Nixon said the reconfiguration would provide consistency for all the students and reduce “unnecessary transitions, and that will help them feel more comfortable and have a better learning environment all around to be more successful in their studies.”

The board lauded the work of the committee, which spent a lot of time making sure the schools were balanced not just geographically in terms of the students attending each school, but socially and economically as well.

“We specifically looked at balancing socioeconomic and geographical considerations, as well as students who receive different levels of service to make sure there’s not an imbalance of students who need special needs” and other specialized services, said Nixon.

Lincoln Elementary is in the midst of a major renovation project. At Thursday’s school board meeting, a building update to the board said the $10 million project, funded by state money and a 2018 bond measure, is scheduled to be completed by the second week of August and ready for use when school starts back up in the fall.