Amityville School Superintendent John Williams will be reaching out to the community to open a dialogue between the district and residents about a proposal to move 9th graders from the high school and into a 9th grade academy at the Middle School and the 6th grade from the Middle School to Park Avenue. The change is designed to free up space at the high school, which is crowded. The change would impact this year's 5th and 8th graders, and involve approximately 400 students.

"Right now this (proposal) is a work in progress," said Williams. "We are busy looking at the big pieces and we'd like to get information out to the residents and get their thoughts."

The high school is so crowded now that teachers do not have their own rooms. Many use mobile carts to carry books and materials from one class to the other, and this makes the hallways and the cafeteria very crowded, said school officials.

In addition, the number of students being served at the high school now makes it difficult for the district to improve curriculum programming and offer more options such as more AP courses. In total, there is only one classroom free for one period during the instructional day. "Dr. (Scott) Andrews, the principal, does not even have space to meet with parents or teachers or students," said Williams.

The plan was initially discussed last year, and included moving the 6th and 9th graders, as well as moving 3rd graders from Park Avenue to Northwest. But discussions were put on hold when the district realized there was not enough time to properly implement the plan. Since then, a review of the space issues at Park Avenue has shown that there is enough room to move the 6th graders into that building and still keep the 3rd graders there.

"At some point we do want to move the 3rd graders into Northwest and make that a testing school, but we thought it would be best to take smaller steps and monitor the plan more carefully," said Williams. Whatever we do, we want to do it well," he said.

The 9th grade academy would ensure that the 9th graders have the opportunity to make the transition from Middle School to High School. They would have schedules more in line with what is offered at the high school and similarly, the 6th graders who go into Park Avenue would have team teaching and an academic schedule more like Middle School than elementary school, said Williams.

"The goal is to ensure that everyone will have at least as good or a better program," said the superintendent. "We don't want to have anyone lose any benefit or advantage as a result of the change. We want to look carefully at all aspects, including athletics, curriculum and extra curricular activities."

The changes, if implemented, will take effect September 2009.

In other school news, the school board approved new high school course proposals including creative writing and printmaking for grades 10-12; math 12 for grade 12; geometry honors for grade 9; geometry 1, 1L and 2L for grade 10.

The next regular business meeting of the school board will be held Feb. 11, 7 p.m., Park Avenue Memorial School.