by LAREIGN WARD, Press Argus-Courier Staff Wednesday, January 7, 2009 10:55 AM CST
About 60 people attended a meeting Monday night to discuss a plan proposed by Van Buren head football coach Mike Lee to unify Coleman and Butterfield junior high schools by designating one campus for ninth grade and the other for grades seven and eight.
The informal meeting was held at the fieldhouse at Blakemore Field, and attended by Superintendent Merle Dickerson, who told the crowd he believed a local committee should be formed to carefully examine the possibility of changing the district's grade configuration.
"All the people that are impacted by the change have to be at the table before the decision is made," Dickerson said.
He did not commit one way or another to making a change, only saying that everyone in the community needed to have input in the decision.
Lee said the change would foster more school spirit and pride by having junior high athletes compete as one team from seventh grade onward rather than be forced to coalesce into one unit at the start of 10th grade.
Lee said in December, he was asked by Dickerson to assess the football program, and as part of that assessment, he suggested changing the grade configurations of the junior high.
However, Lee said such an idea has previously been discussed and researched by the administration.
"This is not something that I dreamed up or created" on his own, he said.
Lee said as things stand now, the presence of two ninth-grade football teams renders both unable to compete in their league, and also divides Van Buren students rather than uniting them.
"The worst night on my calendar year, I hate it with a passion, is the night that Butterfield and Coleman play on that field over there," Lee said.
The Arkansas Athletic Association requires members of the same team to be housed on the same campus, and Lee and other coaches said reorganization would result in more practice and conditioning for junior high athletes and also allow the cream of the crop to rise on one team rather than split them among two.
Lee said as things stand now, two athletes who play the same position can go to separate schools and know they won't have to fight for a spot on the team. He said that would change if the campuses were consolidated.
"They're going to duke it out every day for the right to play on Thursday," Lee said. "Now we're developing players."
He said he understands why Van Buren added a second junior high in 1992, but "in my opinion, we do not have the numbers to do that and be competitive."
"We don't," Lee said. "The numbers bear that out. There have been a lot of good football coaches come and go through this town. I just feel that if you stand back and just let it continue, I don't see us digging out of this hole."
Clarke Moore, a member of the 1996 state championship team who went to play college football at Arkansas and is an active supporter of Van Buren athletics, said he believed the change would help restore Van Buren to its winning ways.
"We haven't had a winning team in 10 years," Moore said. "How embarrassing is that? … It's a mentality. Winning's a mentality. We've got to get that mentality back. Combine our junior highs. I think that's the greatest, grandest idea I've ever heard."
Lee cautioned that such a change wouldn't guarantee wins.
"But it gives us a competitive chance that I don't feel like we have right now," the coach said.
Supporter Derek Barlow said academics would not suffer if the schools were combined, and argued that studies show it helps for ninth graders to be separate from seventh and eighth graders, especially as ninth graders' academic performance affects their chances of getting into college.
Lee and Dickerson agreed that the biggest challenge for a reorganization committee will be figuring out facilities and staffing issues.
"Do we have the 900 to 950 (seventh and eighth grade) kids in the same school building?" asked Dickerson. "Do we have the space to do that?"
Dickerson said "I wouldn't get my hopes up" about any reorganization taking effect for the 2009-2010 school year, but said it was quite possible it could happen the year after that.
He said the school board is not likely to take up the decision immediately, as a committee must be formed and then carefully examine the ins and outs of reorganization.
"I'm only committed at this point to putting together a community-wide committee to decide the issue," the superintendent said. "Then we'll move forward based on their decision."
Lee wrote on Jan 14, 2009 6:13 AM: