Ontario School District

Where Did This Idea Come From?

Before the COVID-19 shutdowns, the Ontario School District invested a significant amount of time gathering feedback and opinions from our stakeholders regarding the shift to a grade level, focused learning model at the elementary school level. The feedback we received from stakeholders was overwhelmingly positive, with understandable hesitations. Parents appreciated the chance to unite the community by having all students in Ontario move through the school system together, smaller class sizes, and more targeted abilities to match teachers to their students' needs. Teachers also noted the strengths of a reconfiguration; it allowed them to spend more time on targeted instruction with all grade level teachers in the district, smaller class sizes, and a wider range of opportunities to meet individual student needs for intervention and/or acceleration. 

The original plan was to transition to a grade level model around the same time as the 6th-grade transition to their new building. We hope to still be able to transition at the same time to limit the number of interruptions to the school year. That means that we would prepare the grade level shift to happen in the Fall of 2024-barring any construction delays with the 6th-grade building construction that would then push reconfiguration out to the Fall of 2025. Our team of Elementary Principals and Assistant Principals have come together to plan and strategize the execution of the transition. As we work at a swift pace to catch up to the original timeline, our next step is informing parents of the shift. A lot has happened since we began this planning several years ago. Much of our planning was stalled due to school shut-downs and other implications of the pandemic. We anticipate that parents will have questions and we want to provide as many opportunities for feedback as we can, where possible. 

We are still working through the best options for which grade bands will be at which facility, which administrators will be at which grade bands, and how staff placements will be determined. We know that we will most likely group buildings as K-1, 2-3, and 4-5. Cairo and Pioneer school facilities will not immediately be utilized for students in the reconfiguration, but OSD will not sell or get rid of these buildings. They will serve as opportunities to enhance our district in the future; potential pre-k space, childcare space, magnet school facility, etc. 

The Ontario School District's commitment has always been, and will continue to be, to do what is best for the children of Ontario. This transition will certainly be difficult and won't be without its challenges, but it is what is best for our students. We truly have the most amazing staff, parents, and students in Ontario and we would not be able to execute this type of shift without each and every one of you.

Due to school shutdowns and reprioritization of resources, certain aspects of the elementary reconfiguration had to be delayed. After emerging from the pandemic, District resources were shifted to ensuring students' academic growth, social-emotional, mental health, and proficiencies were addressed. 

 

Recently, the Ontario School Board of Directors brought the topic of elementary reconfiguration back up for discussion. District administrators picked up the conversation and have begun the planning and strategizing to align the reconfiguration back up with the progress made at the new 6th-grade building. It is our goal to be able to reconfigure elementary grades at the same time that the new 6th-grade building welcomes its first class of 6th graders in the Fall of 2024.