LE ROY — Elementary classes within the Southern Coffey County school district will be consolidated and middle school students moved.
Le Roy-Gridley USD 245 Board of Education members voted unanimously at a special April 16 meeting to move all elementary school students within the district to Gridley, while the middle school students will be taught in Le Roy.
The moves could save the district between $150,000 and $200,000 annually for a district that has experienced drops in enrollment in recent years, Superintendent of Schools Russ Millward told the Coffey County Republican.
Currently, elementary school students are taught separately in Le Roy and Gridley.
Under the plan approved by board members, those students — pre-kindergarten through fifth grade — will now be taught at Gridley Elementary School.
Meanwhile, students in grades 6 through 8 will be moved to what up to now has been Le Roy Elementary School. Those students had been taught in Gridley.
The existing middle school building in Gridley will be closed, pending a May 11 public hearing at the USD 245 district office.
Southern Coffey County High School students will remain in their current building in Le Roy, although board members may consider at some point moving them across the street to share facilities with the middle-schoolers, the Coffey County Republican reported.
At their regular meeting three days earlier, board members set up a walk-through commencement ceremony at 3 p.m. May 16 for the high school’s 11 graduating seniors.
The ceremony will allow up to 10 people in the gymnasium at a time, the newspaper reported, with a board member presenting the diploma to the senior, with up to eight family members allowed inside the watch.
The ceremony will culminate with a 5 p.m. senior parade, in which observers will sit in their vehicles along Main Street and honk as the seniors are driven along the route.
Board members also agreed to purchase yard signs honoring each of the seniors.
