SLIPPERY ROCK — The Slippery Rock Area School District board held a special operations committee and building project meeting Thursday, April 20, to introduce a proposal for a grade reconfiguration in the district.

“That’s a key word: ‘proposal’ idea,” superintendent Alfonso Angelucci said. “You don’t see ‘done deal,’ or ‘it’s been voted on’ — that’s not happening. It’s just a proposal.”

As parents, staff and board members, took their seats at the Slippery Rock Area Middle School, Angelucci asked how many attendees had heard about the proposal and were concerned.

The majority of the people in the room raised their hands.

“That is most of you — message received,” Angelucci said. “The message is received. You don’t like what you’re hearing; you don’t like the idea or the proposal that might be floated out there.

“So I’m asking you: Give us a chance. Let us go through our presentation.”

The district proposed limiting their elementary schools, Moraine and Slippery Rock, to kindergarten through fourth-grade. Fifth-grade would then be moved to the middle school and eighth grade would be moved to the high school.

Angelucci emphasized that if the proposal is accepted, changes would take effect in the 2026-27 school year, at the earliest.

The proposal, he said, came from a series of meetings — called “charettes” — the district had pre-pandemic.

The charettes helped develop a mechanical, electrical and plumbing project; a new security entrance; and upgrades to the cafeteria for the high school planned for 2024.

“So I’m going to fast-forward to last summer,” Angelucci said. “Last summer, our elementary schools housed what’s called a ‘Wild Camp’ right here at our middle school.”

The camp, he said, saw especially impressive results from the “rising kindergartners” who were invited — students ages 4 and 5 who were to enter kindergarten that fall.

“I said, ‘What if we did something like that where we have them here for a half-day program all year long,” Angelucci said. “And we had our eyes on them; we got to see their strengths and weaknesses, and what a help that would be to the community too.”

The proposed grade reconfiguration would allow the district to explore an early-education program in the elementary schools, a move that would particularly assist students at Moraine Elementary School, according to Angelucci.

“We need more opportunities for quality, developmentally appropriate preschool early learning programs, especially in the southern end,” he said. “(Slippery Rock University) is up here in the northern end. They have a fantastic preschool program, and there are some quality day cares up here too, but there was a hole as far as good, quality developmentally sound preschool in the southern end.”

Additionally, he said capacity at Slippery Rock Elementary has been limited due to a statewide mandate requiring all special needs and support classes to be housed in individual classrooms.

“With all of that we thought, ‘How can we free up some?’” Angelucci said. “Again, proposal, idea, the idea that we could move the fifth-grade up to the middle school and eighth-grade up to the high school.”

To determine the feasibility of this idea, assistant superintendent Susan Miller said the district met with four other schools with high schools with grades eight to 12.

The closest one, she said, was the Hermitage School District.

“We talked to Tunkhannock School District, Greater Johnstown School District and Chestnut Ridge,” Miller said.

Miller said they met with principals and administrators from all four schools.

“And we had a question, I’m sure, that’s on the top of every one of your minds: How can you possibly put eighth-graders with 12th-graders?” Miller said.

The answer they found, she said, was that age did not matter.

“It doesn’t matter the grade; it doesn’t matter the age — it matters the ‘supports,’” Miller said. “So whether you have ninth-graders as your first year, seventh-graders as your first year or eighth-graders as your first year — you need to plan the support appropriately for that grade level.”

Additionally, she said all four schools found they were better able to utilize their staff, resources and time.

“The theme of these four school districts is they made eighth-grade what they would call an introductory year,” Miller said. “They were able to offer an introduction to different languages; they were able to offer an introduction to vocational programs. They gave kids kind of a flavor of what to expect in the high school to help them make decisions further on.”

The relocation of the high school offices — as part of the renovated security entrance — would also open up space for an eighth-grade wing in the school, Miller said.

With a decrease in the district enrollment of 800 since 2000, Miller said the proposal and renovations would help prepare the district long-term to meet the needs of the community.

The administration closed by inviting attendees to submit questions, comments and concerns, both digitally and by hand before leaving.

The next step, Angelucci said, was taking that information and using it to form a decision about the proposal.

“Putting that all together, sorting through it and seeing not only what’s best for the kids, but what the taxpayers find the most productive for the school district also,” Angelucci said. “But the kids are the first priority.”

The ultimate decision, he said, would be made with respect to what the community wanted.

“Again, if you hate it, OK that’s fine — in fact, if we keep things as they are ... that makes it easier on me and the staff,” Angelucci said. “That makes it a lot easier, actually, but I just feel like we have an opportunity here as we’re renovating the high school building to possibly do something for our community.”

The proposal, he said, was still three years out and no definite decision had been made.

“I keep re-emphasizing for anybody that is really concerned that this is for 2026-27 school year,” he said. “We’re just trying to do our due diligence and plan effectively and intelligently. That’s all.”