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Lexington's middle schools, roughly speaking, are organized on the basis of <br />Teams averaging 85 pupils, which is generally equivalent to 4 sections per team <br />and would typically be housed, in a "pure team" model, in a team space of three <br />general classrooms, a science classroom, and support space. <br />Diamond and Clarke are each intended to have the capacity for 3 teams per <br />grade in 3 grades, for a total of 9 teams. Both schools currently function <br />according to this model, but with some compromises. Probably their most <br />difficult period in this regard was the 2006 -07 school year, when total MS <br />enrollments peaked at 1569. Enrollments have dropped since then, and <br />projections show them continuing to drop to 1200 or less by FY 2019. <br />The reason that compromises are necessary is that the scope of the built <br />projects was reduced. As presented in the 1997 Master Plan, the expansion <br />projects for Clarke and Diamond provided enough classroom and science room <br />space to accommodate 9 teams in a pure "team- taught" model. However, the <br />projects as approved and constructed were significantly reduced in size, by <br />12,000 GSF in the case of Clarke and by 16,700 GSF in the case of Diamond. This <br />was accomplished largely by reducing the number of general classrooms. <br />The educational impact of this is that, while the number of science classrooms <br />per school remains at 9, allowing science rooms to be assigned to each team, the <br />number of general classrooms is insufficient for this. It is therefore necessary <br />that both students and teachers rotate or "hot -bed" through classrooms. This <br />situation is somewhat more complicated at Diamond because Diamond has <br />insufficient teacher planning space to allow each teacher a "home base" <br />(minimally, a desk and a secure place for coat and personal belongings). This <br />means that, even with the extra modular classrooms, some teachers must <br />"double up" with desks in classrooms. <br />Because of the degree of operational accommodation that has become routine <br />at these two schools over the years, it is difficult to say with precision how many <br />additional classrooms Diamond actually needs to function. However, It is safe to <br />say that, with current enrollments, Diamond would be seriously disadvantaged if <br />it could not retain at least 3 of the 6 modular classrooms currently in place. <br />On the question of when in the future Diamond could fully function without the <br />modulars, the answer is probably that this can only occur when the number of <br />teaching teams is reduced from 9 to 8 (which, among other things, will probably <br />require that at least one team be multi- grade). If we assume 85 pupils per team, <br />this will happen when the enrollment at Diamond drops to 680 or below. We <br />can project this happening in either of two ways: <br />1. If we assume no re- districting at the MS level, then this enrollment drop at <br />Diamond probably will not occur until the District -wide MS enrollments drop <br />Design Partnership of Eamhridga <br />