MONROE – A playground is about all that separates Frank Wagner and Monroe elementary schools.
Next year, it will be what ties them together.
The Monroe School District plans to merge the two schools next year under the Frank Wagner name.
“I cannot tell you how excited I am about this opportunity,” said Robin Fitch, who will head the new school. She currently is principal at Maltby Elementary.
“When I listen (to teachers at the schools), I hear lots of renewed energy. … They are so excited to have a focus to look ahead to. Sometimes schools can get humdrum. And looking ahead – boy, we are not going to be humdrum at all.”
But the greatest benefit of the merger will be linking more teachers, allowing them to better plan grade-level lessons and find the best ways to work with individual students, Fitch said.
“Kids will benefit because teachers are more empowered,” she said.
A series of meetings is planned for parents from both schools to help sort out the details of the merger.
Enrollment in the combined school would top 750.
Frank Wagner this year enrolls 448 students in kindergarten through fifth grade; Monroe Elementary enrolls 303 for the same grades.
Under the plan, the two buildings would be dubbed East and West campuses. But just how students will be divided between them – such as younger students in one and older students in another – must still be decided.
“We’ll really have to discuss that with parents and see what their thoughts are on that,” district spokeswoman Rosemary O’Neil said.
The neighboring schools together take up the majority of the block bounded by Main Street, Dickinson Road, Columbia Street and Kirby Drive.
And they already have partnered in some ways.
They have joined classes before, for example, when each didn’t have quite enough students in a grade level to form a new one on their own.
Some staff also move between the buildings.
Occasionally, the schools share assembly speakers and the like.
“They’re really pretty similar, which looks and feels so much more natural to consider it as one campus,” O’Neil said.
Both schools serve significant populations of Spanish-speaking students who are learning English as well as students who come from low-income households.
Margie Rodriguez, an assistant principal at Monroe High School, will assist Fitch at the new school. She is fluent in Spanish as well as English.
The merger marks a short life for Monroe Elementary School, which opened in the former Frank Wagner Middle School in fall 2005.
The merger will combine the schools under one principal and will consolidate other staff services, such as custodians, secretaries and counselors.
The buildings each would likely keep their own health rooms and libraries, though they would be jointly managed.
The Monroe School Board has been seeking $1 million in cuts to next year’s operating budget. The merger will save about $25,000 in salary costs.
Reporter Melissa Slager: 425-339-3465 or mslager@heraldnet.com.
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