A plan to reconfigure the grade levels across the Jackson School District was approved at a school-board meeting Tuesday night.

The board also approved a bond issue of at least $21.5 million to be on the April ballot to facilitate the realignment. The bond issue would not require a tax-rate increase.

Aaron Harte, an architect at Incite Design Studio that put together the facilities plan, laid out the plan to the board.

All elementary schools will contain kindergarten through fourth-grade classes, he said. Prekindergarten classes will remain at East Elementary, and the district will explore the feasibility and demand for expanded prekindergarten classes at other elementary schools in the future.

Jackson Middle School will be converted to hold grades five and six.

Russell Hawkins Junior High will house grades seven and eight.

Ninth grade will be relocated to the high-school campus in what will be the largest step in the conversion, involving a sizable addition to the facility. It also would be one of the earliest steps of the construction project — when ninth grade moves, the other classes can move, too.

This will reduce class sizes and align the curriculum, programs and facilities across the district, Harte said.

The high-school currently consists of 10th through 12th grades, junior high is eighth and ninth grades, and middle school is sixth and seventh grades.

North, South and East Elementary are kindergarten through fifth grade; Orchard Drive Elementary and Gordonville Elementary are kindergarten through second grade; Millersville Elementary is kindergarten through third grade, and West Lane Elementary is third through fifth grade.

Much of this reconfiguration will take place in phase one of the long-range facility plan.

“The schedule is not aggressive, but it’s more than standard,” Harte said.

The project design will begin in January. Projects will be bid in June, and if all goes as planned, “by August of 2018, the buildings can be online.”

Other projects, such as security and traffic in the district, also are part of phase one.

The board also must consider whether to hire a general contractor through a hard bid or hire a construction manager for the project.

West Lane, he said, would have to be a hard bid if a FEMA grant for a safe room is awarded, but other renovations are open for either option.

What the district chooses will affect the project’s cost. A construction-manager option often is more expensive, but there are benefits, such as the potential for more local participation.

This decision will be made in January or February, Harte said.

The facilities plan was approved unanimously by the board.

Superintendent John Link said even if voters don’t pass a bond issue, Incite’s studies have shown the district has a class-size issue that needs to be addressed.

In the regular January meeting, a formal facility assessment and long-range facility plan will be presented. Harte said no work on the FEMA project will take place until the grant is approved by the new governor.

In March, Incite will provide a schematics design presentation for all four building projects.

Also at Tuesday’s school-board meeting, seven high-school students were recognized for being selected for the All-State Choir.

Teacher Autumn Stevens also was recognized for being selected as Regional Teacher of the Year by Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

bbrown@semissourian.com

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614 E. Adams St., Jackson, Mo.