The Poughkeepsie City School District has launched a website detailing its proposal to restructure elementary school buildings to better serve the social, emotional and educational needs of its youngest learners.

The Elementary Division of Instruction also held an informational session Tuesday, a recording of which is available on the site.

The site includes details of the plan, a timeline, links to previous presentations, an FAQ section and a form through which to submit questions to the district.

The recommendation to reconfigure has been two years in the making. It was spurred and then revised in response to families’ needs and concerns in regard to providing stability for students and reducing stress when traveling to school.

The proposal, which would go into effect for the 2025-26 school year, is subject to Board of Education approval. It includes providing bus transportation to most students in grades pre-K through 5, an aspect voters would be asked to approve during the May 20 budget vote and board election.

Under the plan, the Morse and Krieger school buildings would serve students in grades pre-K through 2, and the Clinton, Smith and Warring school buildings would serve grades 3-5.

Currently, the Early Learning Center at the Smith school serves pre-K and kindergarten students, with the other four buildings teaching grades 1-5. That has created a situation in which the district’s youngest students switch schools at least once – in some cases twice for those who attend pre-K somewhere other than the ELC – in their first couple years in the school system.

 “That causes a huge disruption in a child’s education,” Janet Bisti, director of elementary education, said. “By having our primary buildings be pre-K through 2, students will be able to spend three of four years in the same building in order to build those initial social and academic skills.”

She noted the new structure would lend itself to “greater curriculum alignment,” encourage stronger relationships between families and school staff, and be more developmentally appropriate.

“There’s a big shift in the way that students are taught and the way that they learn around grade 3,” Bisti said. “So breaking the schools at that point is an appropriate transition.”

Rather than having teachers of one grade level spread among four buildings, it would be two or three. That would not only make it easier to gather students together for group discussion or learning opportunities but also easier to provide staff with professional development.

Under the proposal, special programs would be spread among the five schools. All buildings except Smith will have integrated co-teaching and 15:1 classes. Morse will also include SSTAR and behavioral support programming, Krieger and Smith will offer life skills and the dual language programs, Warring will offer SSTAR programming and Clinton will offer behavioral support.

Bisti stressed during the Tuesday meeting, the district purposefully placed each program in the buildings where they could best serve the students’ progress and comfort, and where there would be room for the programs to grow.

All buildings will continue to provide music, library, physical education and extended learning.

Meanwhile, the district has already worked with partners to receive “Child Safety Zone” designations, making it eligible for state aid on bus transportation for any student who lives more than a half-mile from their school. State aid would account for 81.5% of the cost, with fund balance covering the rest without impacting taxpayers. Voters would still need to approve the measure in May.

The district plans to present the proposal and details of the bus transportation aspect to the Board of Education Feb. 19. If the plan is approved by the board, the district would need to make an official request to the state Education Department by March 1 in order to go into effect for next school year.

The district plans to hold additional informational sessions for parents and orientation events at each building in the coming months should the proposals be approved.