WINDHAM – Some Windham students would attend school in Raymond under a proposal being considered to alleviate school overcrowding in Regional School Unit 14.

The school district will hold public forums early next month on the plan, which would send the fifth grade at Raymond’s Jordan-Small Middle School to the town’s elementary school while placing elementary and middle school students living in the northern section of Windham in Raymond schools.

Since the two towns consolidated in 2008, the Windham-Raymond town line has determined which schools students attend. Windham elementary and middle school students attend Windham schools and Raymond students attend Raymond’s elementary and middle school. High school students in both towns attend Windham High School. Under the new plan, students living in the northern part of Windham – the areas above Whites Bridge Road and Anglers Road – would attend Raymond schools.

“If you drew a line on Whites Bridge Road and drew a line across town, it’s really Whites Bridge Road north all the way up,” said Superintendent Sandy Prince.

According to Prince, the changes are needed due to a severe imbalance in school population for the two towns.

“The Windham Primary School and Windham Middle School are over capacity and the schools in Raymond are under capacity so I think this is trying to make some changes given our population and where they live,” he said. “For me, the analogy is the see-saw. It needs to be balanced and without changing the lines, it’s going to be tilting one way for quite a while. So it’s really just a matter of trying to balance out the classrooms, and making sure the schools are close to being at capacity.”

Raymond has two schools: Raymond Elementary School, which encompasses grades K-4, and Jordan-Small Middle School, with grades 5-8.

In Windham, students in kindergarten through third grade attend Windham Primary School. Manchester Elementary School houses fourth- and fifth-graders, with grades 6-8 attending Windham Middle School.

According to Prince, the Windham Primary School has an enrollment of 818 students this year. It was built for 689. Windham Middle School was designed to hold 536 students and is at 585.

Under the proposed plan, Windham’s school population would decrease due to redrawn lines. The shift would reduce enrollment at Windham Primary School by 73 children, and Windham Middle School would lose 33 students.

After incorporating the fifth-graders and new students from northern Windham, Raymond Elementary School’s overall enrollment would increase to 357 students, up from 225 students this year. The elementary school’s capacity is 458 students.

Jordan-Small would actually see a decrease from 193 students this year to 174 next year. The school’s capacity is 348.

In Windham, the primary school would decrease from 818 students to 765. Manchester would see a slight decrease from 399 this year to 381 students next year. Windham Middle School’s population would decrease from 585 students to 562, based on projections.

Second round

The upcoming public hearings are a second round of sorts for district residents concerning the facilities overhaul. In late 2010, the school board proposed closing Jordan-Small Middle School and shifting all students to Raymond Elementary School, which would have required costly renovations. The proposal was roundly opposed by Raymond residents who thought Windham, which has a significant representative majority on the board, six Windham members to Raymond’s three, was calling for too many changes too soon in the relationship of the newly formed district. Talk of secession from the school district ensued but didn’t materialize.

The new proposal is less contentious, officials say, since it tries to avoid making too many waves in local education while at the same time dealing with the overcrowding issue in Windham. It also doesn’t cause any additional expenses such as building additions or the use of modular classrooms. Officials say the proposed plan is a way to avoid costs that would be incurred if Windham had to deal with its overcrowding in other ways.

According to Raymond board member Catriona Sangster, chairwoman of the Strategic Facilities Building Committee, a potential sticking point in the new plan could be the redistricting changes. She said parents living in northern Windham accustomed to dropping their child off at school on their way to work in Westbrook or Portland would have to drive into Raymond instead.

According to Prince, the school district provides bus transportation to all students, and would continue to do so under the new plan. Some bus schedules in northern Windham would change, however.

“It would be a transition,” Sangster said. “Some of it is a convenience issue. From the area that is affected, the distance is the same, 4.5 miles, but the bottom line is that’s a different direction for families, and we don’t really have an answer to that. We acknowledge that is a different direction, and it may take time to adjust to that. So some of the things that are concerns, we acknowledge as concerns and we might not be able to rectify.”

A positive that could result from the new plan is more district cohesion. For years now, Raymond has been sending their students to Windham schools. Under the new plan, Windham students would be traveling to Raymond, which officials say could be a different direction in attitude, as well.

“I think it could be very healthy for us to see ourselves as one district rather than two towns that happen to be sharing an administration,” Sangster said. “So I think we are two very similar communities and there could be even greater collaboration.”

Teacher input has already occurred. The facilities committee, which has been meeting since last September trying to figure out school capacity issues, held three meetings with teachers in the spring. According to Terry Taiani, a teacher at Jordan-Small Middle School and president of the Sebago East Shore Educators Association, which represents all the teachers in Windham and Raymond, teachers seem to be on board with at least part of the plan.

“The writing has been on the wall here at Jordan-Small with the idea that the fifth grade will go over, it’s just been a matter of when,” Taiani said. “So we get it, and I haven’t heard a major uproar about it at all.”

However, the jury is still out on the district shift regarding northern Windham students, she said. While the union hasn’t made an official decree on that part of the plan, Taiani said, “my own personal opinion, it can’t help but be a good thing, if we’re reducing class sizes and then filling up some of that empty space here in Raymond. But as far as the teacher pulse, I don’t have it on the line move.”

Taiani said the union would be concerned if class sizes were affected by the changes.

“My only worry is if they didn’t keep an eye on the numbers, and make sure the class sizes are balanced out. But we’re trusting that the administration will keep an eye on those numbers and adjust accordingly,” she said.

Prince acknowledges that the change would be major for northern Windham families who expect to send their children to schools in their own town. Thinking as a district could take time, he said. But he said the numbers, and improbability that Windham would pay for a new school to ease overcrowding, forced the school board to come up with the proposed solution.

“I think people understand how lopsided we are in terms of capacity,” Prince said. “I think it’s always hard when it’s in your back yard, and your children are going to have to go to a different school. But I can say they’re going to get the same education. RES is a wonderful school. Jordan-Small is a wonderful school. I think change is going to be really hard, but I think in the long run, they’ll be very pleased with their child’s education.”

Prince said curriculum wouldn’t change under the new proposal.

“There would be no changes,” he said. “The curriculum is going to continue to flourish.”