Pasco to look at converting yet-to-open McClintock to full elementary school

The Pasco School Board has hinted at possibly converting the yet-to-open Barbara McClintock STEM Elementary School, initially planned for kindergarten through second grade, to serve students as old as sixth grade.

The board agreed Tuesday night to bring in an architect to look at what work would be needed to convert the west Pasco school, which is more than halfway built.

Board Vice President Scott Lehrman openly endorsed having the science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, focused school operate as a regular grade school, drawing applause from the crowd at the meeting.

“Continuity in schools we know is best for your children,” Lehrman said.

The conversion likely won’t happen in time for the fall, however. An initial analysis indicates McClintock can’t be modified that quickly, district officials said. Some administrators and board members also said any changes need to be carefully considered and not based purely on emotion.

“It’s a district wide plan that got us here,” board member Steve Christensen said.

But west Pasco parents, who have called at recent meetings for McClintock to open as a K-6, continued to call for the conversion as soon as possible.

The district’s latest boundaries, which would only send area kindergarteners to McClintock next year, was an improvement, some said, but most expressed frustration with how the district has handled the boundaries.

“Communication is not happening here,” said John Hamilton, whose children attend Rosalind Franklin STEM Elementary School. “We’re being handled.”

McClintock is under construction on Road 60 in west Pasco and will open in the fall. It’s one of three new STEM elementary schools paid for by a $46.8 million bond approved by voters two years ago.

The district’s original plan was to have Franklin, currently K-6, serve third- through sixth-graders while the newly opened McClintock would have kindergarten through second-graders. Whittier and Marie Curie STEM elementary schools on the east side will have a similar arrangement next fall.

Parents have roundly criticized that idea in community meetings. They question the benefit of further dividing kids between schools, pointing to additional strain on families with more schedules, requests for help in schools, and split-up siblings.

Research also points to negative effects on academic performance when students frequently move between schools, some parents said.

District administrators have issued a few revisions to their boundary plans since those initial comments, but all involve McClintock not becoming a full K-6 school, which parents said must happen, even if it doesn’t have everything a standard grade school would have.

“Everyone will be happy without an artist kiln or a big gym or playground as long as they’re in a neighborhood school,” one parent said.

The board has received some answers to questions about what needs to happen to convert McClintock, but there’s been little definition about what is required and what simply is desired. Cost is unclear, as is where the money for the conversion would come from. The district has to use the space next year in order to accommodate enrollment, officials said.

The district will continue to work with the architect to further refine what must be done and board members are expected to take tours of McClintock in the coming days to help visualize the possible scale of work needed.

The board and administrators asked for the public’s patience.

“We would like to do nothing more than spread the magic dust and make this happen for everyone,” Superintendent Saundra Hill said.

This story was originally published February 24, 2015 at 9:08 PM with the headline "Pasco to look at converting yet-to-open McClintock to full elementary school."