Despite mixed feelings, Roosevelt Public School Board members on Monday approved implementing multiage classrooms in Carson.

When school begins Aug. 26, teachers will instruct two grade levels in multiage classrooms for the first through sixth grades. The classes will be taught as first and second, third and fourth, and fifth and sixth. The change affects only Carson students.

Students will move between two rooms and a computer lab, moving at their own pace through individualized curriculum that meets national education standards for their grade level, said Anni Linden, principal of Grant County Junior High School in Carson.

Two teachers will pair up in the classrooms, and a third teacher will spend half-days in some grade levels, Linden said.

"We are giving students more options," Linden said. "The school is providing students the best education possible."

Teachers spent three days in July to coordinate lesson plans and receive instructional training, said Michelle Koepplin, who will team-teach the third- and fourth-grade classroom this year.

Koepplin said she saw the benefits of multiage education when she enrolled her children in Head Start last school year.

Teachers used similar lessons with Koepplin's 3- and 5-year-old children. Although her younger child was not mentally ready for the advanced lesson, Koepplin said the repetition will speed future learning.

"They were both given a chance to try something new," she said. "When my 3-year-old hears the concepts again next year, learning will be easier."

She hopes that multiage classrooms will offer the same learning improvements for all students in Carson.

Larger classes allow students to work together, Koepplin said, as struggling students benefit from other children's leadership.

But when school administrators first proposed multiage classrooms this spring, many parents feared the change would overwhelm some students. Disagreement between parents and school officials during a May informational meeting led school board members to postpone approval in favor of more research.

The change was too much, many parents said at the meeting, especially after the district's co-op last year with Elgin-New Leipzig Public School District.

Both schools offer kindergarten through fourth grade. Fifth- through eighth-grade students attend school in Carson, while Elgin-New Leipzig offers grades nine through 12.

Parents at the meeting threatened to pull their students out of Carson in favor of Elgin-New Leipzig's traditional classrooms. So far there's no indication of how many, if any, parents will transfer their children.

School board president Val Hartman voted Monday against multiage classrooms, fearing further financial restraints from possible enrollment drops.

John Alt of Carson has debated transferring his second-grade daughter to the nearby school.

"The kids are not going to get the attention they should," Alt said of Carson's multiage classrooms. "The school should leave things the way they were."

But traditional classrooms no longer suit the school's dropping enrollment and dwindling resources, said Martin Schock, superintendent of both the Carson and Elgin-New Leipzig school districts.

The multiage classrooms will hold 15 to 20 students - some classes in Carson last year had six children, Linden said.

Because projected enrollments reveal further decline, Linden expects more change in Carson's future - combined classrooms with fewer teachers or district consolidations.

"It's the small-town problem," she said. "Everyone has declining enrollment and everyone's consolidating. We are preparing for the future with small steps."

In addition to a multiage fifth- and sixth-grade classroom, the school also will offer separated classes for the two grades. Linden said school officials want a smooth transition, and for parents to be supportive.

Koepplin acknowledges parents' hesitation, but is certain that multiage classrooms will provide students with optimum learning.

Trust the teachers, she said.

"We have the children's best interest in mind," Koepplin said. "If we didn't, we would not be in this profession."

(Reach reporter Maggie Stehr at 250-8261 or maggie@bismarcktribune.net.)