Hempfield middle school redistricting proposal up for vote
Hempfield families will soon have some final answers about what schools their children will attend in the wake of the board’s decision to consolidate its three middle schools into two.
Directors are set to vote on a proposed redistricting plan when they meet at 7 p.m. Monday.
Elementary students who currently attend Fort Allen and West Hempfield schools will be at West Hempfield Middle School this fall, according to a proposal posted on the Hempfield Area website.
Maxwell and West Point elementary school students will attend Wendover Middle School, and Stanwood Elementary School students will be assigned to West Hempfield or Wendover.
Families whose children are currently in middle school at Harrold can determine what building they will be assigned to this fall based on which elementary school they attended. They also can use a Google Earth map to search their address and identify their middle school.
Students currently in grades six and seven at Wendover and West Hempfield will remain at those schools. Students who are living in the same neighborhood will attend the same middle school.
School directors voted in February to consolidate the middle schools as the high school embarks on its $128 million revitalization project. Built in 1921, Harrold Middle School is Hempfield Area’s oldest school. Ninth graders will attend school in the Harrold building this fall.
Sticking together
For many students at Harrold Middle School and their families, staying together with neighbors and friends is a priority, said parent Jessica Gardner, whose daughter Emma, 12, is in seventh grade at the school. Gardner is a representative for Harrold’s Partners in Education group, which manages parent volunteers for the school.
“She was concerned about, ‘My group of friends, now we’re going to be splitting up,’ ” Gardner said. “(But) from everything that we have seen, it sounds like all the Fort Allen kids are all going to go to the same middle school. That core group of kids will all be together.”
Emma is more excited about going to West Hempfield because her friends will be there, her mother said. The potential complexities of transportation are a concern for Gardner, though.
“Right now, I drive her to school because the school is five minutes from my house,” Gardner said, adding that the drive would be 15 minutes each way to West Hempfield. “I think the buses are crowded now. … Now, I would imagine it would be worse.”
The unknowns of the redistricting process are what tend to cause concern among parents, Gardner noted.
“Some parents are really upset about it. Others are just kind of going with the flow, much like what I’m doing,” she said. “Obviously, there’s frustrations — you’re not going to make everyone happy. I would prefer knowing that my kid is right down the road, but it is what it is.”
Swapping schools
Along with the movement of students from Harrold, three neighborhoods — Youngwood, Timber Ridge Court and Edgewood Manor — are switching from West Hempfield to Wendover Middle School under the new plan.
Students from those neighborhoods who are currently in grades six and seven will be allowed to choose whether to attend West Hempfield or Wendover for the rest of their time in middle school. Thirty-three sixth graders and 24 seventh graders will be affected, according to Hempfield spokesperson Zoey Angelucci.
Enrollment for each middle school will remain at 600 students or fewer, with approximately 200 students per grade, according to the announcement. About 1,200 middle school students are enrolled in the district this year.
Angelucci said eighth graders at all three middle schools will spend their ninth grade year at Harrold Middle School while the high school revitalization project is in progress.
“We are doing (the revitalization) in phases, so that education isn’t disrupted,” she said. “To make more space, the ninth graders are moving there.”
Transitional period
For parent and Partners in Education representative Erica Kemerer, whose son, August, 12, is in seventh grade at Harrold, the difference in distance between Harrold and the other schools is less than ideal. August will attend West Hempfield next school year.
“They’re both pretty far. I didn’t really have an opinion about which one that he went to,” she said. “I’m not real happy about it. … I work in downtown Greensburg, so I’ve always been very close, even when I was at work, if I needed to get him.”
Kemerer was pleasantly surprised that the district was announcing which school students would attend this early in the year, she said. August currently takes the bus to school and is picked up to return home. Next year, he will take the bus both ways.
“It is what it is. We’ll make do. Everyone is going to make it work, but I am just worried about the transition,” she said. “Middle school is really tough, even without anything else extra.”
Parent Andrea Baer, whose two kids, Sophia, 12, and Trenton, 14, will move from Harrold to West Hempfield this fall, said she was relieved the plans are available now but not happy about the overall change.
“That helps us in the planning and getting the kids ready and preparing them for the transition that they will have,” she said. “My sixth grader is relieved that all of the same kids she was in elementary school with will be together with her.”
Baer said the move is definitely a source of anxiety for her and her family. Because her son has special needs, moving schools several times in the next three years may be particularly stressful for him.
“I just think that the idea that we are going to be moving middle schools to consolidate and add so many kids into one building is going to be a disservice to the kids,” Baer said.
This story was updated to reflect the correct spelling of Andrea Baer's name.
Julia Maruca is a TribLive reporter covering health and the Greensburg and Hempfield areas. She joined the Trib in 2022 after working at the Butler Eagle covering southwestern Butler County. She can be reached at jmaruca@triblive.com.
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