NEWS INFORMATION FROM

THE OFFICE OF MAYOR STEPHEN R. REED
City of Harrisburg
King City Government Center
Harrisburg, PA 17101-1678
Telephone: 717.255.3040

FOR IMMEDIATE USE
27 October 2003

CONSOLIDATION OF NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS PLANNING UNDERWAY

Harrisburg, PA—Mayor Stephen R. Reed today announced that planning for the conversion of all neighborhood elementary schools to include the eighth grade, starting in the 2004-2005 school year next August, is continuing.

For years, the elementary schools across the city included Kindergarten to seventh grade classes. All eighth graders were bused from throughout the city to the Rowland School at 19th and Derry Streets. Then the students would change schools again the following year when they went to ninth grade classes at the high school.

“Aside from the logistical operations and costs associated with having a separate school for only eighth graders, there is compelling argument that taking the student from his or her neighborhood school for that one year, right before they would also transfer to yet another school campus, is academically and socially disruptive,” Reed said. “It makes the eighth grade entirely detached from the neighborhood school where the student has, in most cases, spent their previous school years and that detachment reduces the support level inherent in neighborhood schools.”

The first announcement that eighth graders would stay in their neighborhood schools was made internally within the school district last Spring. The transition plans have been underway since. The Rowland School, which has a capacity of 720 students, will now be converted to a neighborhood school housing K-8 students.

Meanwhile, renovation of remaining schools not yet upgraded to modern standards is continuing. The work is being done in phases, since students from a school under renovation usually have to be moved to another location.

The Camp Curtin Elementary School will start its renovation and expansion project in June, 2004. Students of that school will temporarily be housed in the Rowland School in the next school year and then will return to their upgraded facilities the following year.

The Benjamin Franklin Elementary School is now under-going expansion with the district administration offices being converted to classrooms. As those classrooms become available, they will house any overflow students from neighborhood schools that cannot accommodate them. The school district has seen a marked increase in enrollment of over 1200 students in the past eighteen months.

Beginning in 2004, Rowland School Principal Evelyn Antonsen will be assigned as Principal of Ben Franklin Elementary School. The Rowland Assistant Principal, Diane Simaska, will be assigned as Assistant Principal of the Woodward and Riverside Elementary Schools.

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