School District In Roseville Plans To Ship Elementary Students To Nearby Middle School

ROSEVILLE (CBS13) - A Roseville school district is proposing to close an aging elementary school and move those kids to an existing middle school, but the plan isn't sitting well with some parents.

"It seems completely nonsensical to me when the other is just so simple," parent Adrienne Mars said.

Mars is upset because her eighth grader at Creekview Ranch Middle School might have to start sharing their classrooms and buses with hundreds of elementary students as young as kindergarteners.

"They are a state-of-the-art middle school and when you turn it into a K-8, all that's going to change tremendously, and that's not what the school was built for," she said.

The closure of Dry Creek Elementary is forcing its more than 400 students to wind up elsewhere. The district thinks moving them up the street to Creekview Ranch is the best option. But parents say that'll force out some middle school students and cause overcrowding elsewhere.

"So Silverado and Antelope Crossing (middle schools) will now have over 1,000 students each," said Mars. "They're built for 900."

But Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District Superintendent Mark Geyer said overcrowding is not an issue.

"We've had as many as 1,400 at Silverado and about 1,300 at Antelope Crossing and did a good job. So really crowding, we don't see as a specific issue," he said.

But parents are also concerned students won't get appropriate experience with mixed grades.

"So you're going to have less middle school teachers trying to do as many clubs and as many electives," Mars said. "It's not going to happen. So really it hurts everybody."

Parents say Dry Creek students should be dispersed among the nearby elementary schools. But the district says it's a much more seamless move to turn Creekview into K-8 than reconfiguring boundaries.

"We have to buy busses, additional routes, just the transportation alone would be a significant expense.

Both sides agree Dry Creek students need a new place to go, but parents want Creekside Ranch to stay the way it is.

"So you are affecting 2700 middle school students for 484 elementary school students," Mars said. "Do they deserve a new school? Completely. But there are 20 empty classrooms sitting in the district waiting, and they're all nearby."