Due to a higher enrollment than in previous years, Eastover has reached maximum capacity and has began to look at alternatives to house its fourth graders.

“Nothing has been formally decided yet,” said school board president Ingrid Day. “This is a discussion that started over a year ago, and has had several different iterations over time. We experienced a little bit of extra growth at Eastover again this year. Our enrollment did go up much more than anyone would have thought. Since we don’t get to pick where people end up buying their homes and going to school we ended up with a couple extra needs for classrooms over at Eastover. That is why the conversation has started again.”

According to Day, many Eastover third grader’s parents are concerned that this move will affect their child’s elementary school experience. However, this isn’t the first time BH schools have made this kind of move.

“Several years ago, in an effort to operate efficiently we actually closed some buildings, and it had an impact mostly on our elementary schools. When we closed those buildings we ended up with a few different grade configurations to make the remaining buildings operate more efficiently. Lone Pine become a K-3 school and the fourth and fifth graders were placed in West Hills in their own wing in the back,” said Day.

Junior Jamie Silber was part of the first class to be moved to West Hills.

“I was nervous because I was coming out of third grade and going into a middle school,” said Silber. “But, in the end, it wasn’t that big of a change. We had our own hallway for just fourth and fifth graders and ate lunch separately from the middle schoolers. We still had one teacher and one class, it was just a new building. It really still felt like we were in elementary school.”

For the current Eastover third graders, the school board is prepared to make all the necessary adjustments for their potential move to East Hills.

“One of the things that gets discussed quite often is how you make that transition and how you do the right kinds of things for the current third graders so that they would be prepared and have some of the experiences that they might if they were in fourth grade at Eastover,” said Day. “We understand all of those things are important and we’ve made a commitment that if this move were to go forward, that we would work with the Eastover staff and the Eastover community to make sure all of those things got taken care of. They would coexist with the fifth grade and we would make all the necessary amendments to the classroom to make sure that they have the right kind of counter space or drinking fountains or whatever it might be. That they have the right kind of restrooms and what-have-you. So that the fourth and fifth graders together could be like an upper elementary school in their own part of the East Hills building.”

No matter what the outcome is, Silber reassures the third graders that they have nothing to worry about.

“Don’t be nervous. It’s scary at first, being in a school with older kids, but I mean, there’s nothing to be scared about.  You’re still in school with all your friends and you don’t have harder classes or anything. You’re learning the same way as you were before you’re just in a new environment. You should be excited because it prepares you for high school with more kids in the school and different grades and, of course, you get lockers.”