Loranger School officials looking to create consolidated schedule

Leaders in Regional School Unit 23 say consolidating the schedules for grades 3-12 would benefit students and staff.

RSU 23 oversees three schools in Old Orchard Beach: Jamison Elementary, which serves Pre-K through second grade; Loranger Memorial, which serves third through eighth grade; and Old Orchard Beach High School.

Currently, the Loranger Memorial School schedule is split between two age groups. Students in grades 3-5 start school at 8 a.m. and end at 2:15. Students in grades 6-8 start school at 8:30 and end at 2:45. Students at Old Orchard Beach High School follow the later start schedule, and students in Jamison follow the earlier schedule.

School administrators have proposed changing the school day timetable so that Pre-K through second grades would continue with an 8 a.m. – 2:15 school day, and grades three through 12 would have an 8:30-2:45 school day. The new, proposed schedule would create unified start and finish times for all grades at Loranger Memorial School.

Loranger Memorial School Principal Matt Foster led a presentation and discussion on the suggested schedule consolidation at a public meeting at the school’s library Tuesday night.

Foster said that when looking at a suggested consolidated schedule, officials also looked at busing. There are currently two bus schedules – one for Pre-K through 5, and one for grades 6-12. As there are more riders in the younger grades than the higher grades, having the 6-8 students join the younger grades schedule would overload the buses.

Foster said if students from grades 3 – 12 had the same schedule, the number of students riding a bus wouldn’t increase more than a few students from the current schedule. He said the school district could also hire bus aids if there was a need.

A consolidated schedule at Loranger would benefit both students and staff, said Foster.

One united schedule would make it easier for staff, like the counselor and social worker, who work with all grades in the building, to support students, said Foster.

“Those are some of the most critical positions in supporting our neediest students,” he said.

The proposed schedule would give the opportunity for professionals to work together for a more unified plan to address school-wide issues, like attendance, said Foster

“I want to be able to utilize all the staff members I have in this school to tackle the real large problems that school districts are facing,” he said.

Assistant Superintendent Eric Hanson described the current situation at Loranger as “two schools within one school that are a half hour apart, all day long.”

“The schedule here does impact our students on a daily basis in terms of what’s accessible to them,” said Hanson.

Foster said if all students ended the school day at the same time, it would open up after-school activities to more students. If all grades ran classes on the same time frame, there could be more collaboration between allied art staff and teachers, he said. One school-wide schedule would also allow all staff to meet together at school-wide staff meetings, said Foster.

Saco Bay News Publisher Liz Gotthelf can be reached at newsdesk@sacobaynews.com.

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