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Our View: Taking the long view on school space Thursday Aug 18, 2016 at 12:01 AM The Medford School District continues to grapple with the reality of growing enrollment, and Superintendent Brian Shumate is recommending shifting sixth-graders into middle schools. That's a move that has been in the works since last year, when a district task force concluded it would serve students best to have middle schools comprising grades six through eight. Three-year middle schools are not a new concept, and in fact the Medford district is a bit behind the rest of the state in moving away from just seventh and eighth grades at that level. Of 321 middle schools in Oregon, only 25 serve just seventh- and eighth-graders. About half serve sixth- through eighth-graders. Nationally, most middle schools are in that configuration. The local task force, including parents, teachers and administrators, concluded that moving sixth-graders to middle school made academic sense for the students. But it also makes sense from the standpoint of efficient use of space. The district's elementary schools already are bursting at the seams, and modular classrooms have been added at four schools. If there were one or two elementary schools with lots of unused space, it might make sense to adjust attendance boundaries as a long-term fix, but that's not the case. Building a new elementary school would solve the space problem, but it would require boundary adjustments, which can be controversial when some students are forced to change schools but others aren't. Building a new middle school and shifting sixth-graders to all three middle schools would take pressure off all elementary schools simultaneously. It's also possible the district could elect to repurpose Central Medford High School. That likely won't happen for three to five years. In the meantime, the district plans to get as much use as it can from existing school buildings by adding classrooms, possibly displacing some community partners who now use classroom space as well as some limited boundary changes. Eventually, growth in the community likely will mean a third middle school. And that will mean going to district voters for the money to build it. As long as the public is kept informed and district leaders make it clear they have used existing classroom space as efficiently as possible, voters should support a carefully crafted expansion plan.