Covington Independent Schools will indefinitely forego making a decision on a recently presented plan for consolidating the district’s elementary schools, based on comments from Board of Education President Tom Haggard at Thursday’s Board of Education meeting.
Haggard said the district needed to finalize its master facilities plan before it could make an informed decision on consolidation.
“[The master plan] does give a lot of direction for the highest and best use of all our facilities,” Haggard said. “And so I think it’s best to postpone the discussion of consolidation until we complete the master plan.”
The proposed consolidation plan would reduce the number of elementary schools in the district from five to four and would close 9th District Elementary School. The students from the school would be redistributed to Glenn O. Swing Elementary School and Latonia Elementary School. It would also save the district roughly $1 million.
The plan elicited several criticisms from the public at the previous board meeting on Feb. 9. Many were concerned that the consolidation would lead to larger class sizes and less one-on-one attention for students. The board members concluded that more public input was required before they could reach a decision.
LINK nky will report on meetings scheduled for public input on the proposed plan as the information becomes available.