Schenectady

The district hopes the launch of a website to draw input from parents and hiring staff as principals will mean a smoother transition for students affected by redistricting and grade restructuring.

The big changes on tap for students in pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade will take effect in when the 2016-17 school year starts in September.

Plans also call for closing Elmer Avenue and Roosevelt elementary schools at the end of this school year. Oneida Middle School, now closed, would reopen for the 2016-17 year.

Superintendent Larry Spring said last week that the major construction work taking place at Oneida and Mont Pleasant Middle School — which is getting a largely self-contained sixth grade wing — is going well.

The city schools will also be reconfigured beginning in 2016-17, shifting to a prekindergarten to fifth-grade elementary school model of 11 schools, and three sixth- to eighth-grade middle schools. The high school continues to teach grades ninth through 12th grades.

Howe Early Childhood Education Center, which houses pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students, will also be remodeled.

Plans call for it to be closed in the 2016-2017 school year so construction workers can add a second floor at the Baker Avenue building.

Howe students will then be transferred temporarily to Elmer Avenue school until the work at their building is completed.

Right now, there is one person working with the district to help with the transition, Spring said. That number, he said, will jump to three once the new academic year begins. A state grant will pay for the three jobs.

Spring said he understands parents still likely will have many questions and some anxieties.

As a result, the district will use www.thoughtexchange.com to provide another platform for parents to communicate with school officials.

"We're very interested in parents' concerns so we can get it on our radar screen in hopes of addressing it," Spring said. School officials have said Schenectady redistricting is needed now because of major shifts in demographics that will cause overcrowding in some elementary schools on the city's Northside and have the opposite effect in some schools in Woodlawn.

"When these lines are redrawn, we want to make sure that it is more racially and economically integrated," Spring said.

Despite all the preparation and the added staff, Spring expects there will be some glitches.

"I'm comfortable we can deal with unforeseen problems," said the school's chief.

The last redistricting was in 1992.

pnelson@timesunion.com • 518-454-5347 • @apaulnelson