The Elizabethtown Area School District is proposing the closure of both Rheems and Mill road elementary schools. Upon closure of these schools, all 31 available classrooms at the 2 remaining schools (East High and Bainbridge) will immediately be filled leaving NO room for growth.

Our counter-proposal is as follows:

-Shift students at Rheems elementary school to Mill Road Elementary for the 2022-2023 school year to allow for renovations within Rheems elementary. Use this school year as a planning period to transition to full day kindergarten for the 2023-2024 school year.

-Upon completion of renovations at Rheems, Mill Road elementary will shut down and at this time we can redistrict to allow for the west side of Elizabethtown to attend East High, the east side of Elizabethtown to attend Rheems, and the southern portion of Elizabethtown and Bainbridge to attend Bainbridge Elementary School. This will eliminate any students from having excessive bus rides. Use any profits from the selling of mill road to offset the renovation costs. 

-Use any additional classroom space in East High elementary to allow for collaborative learning spaces to mirror what is at Bainbridge and will be at Rheems.

-Upon completion of these renovations, the district will now have 3 equal, updated buildings. East high will get the addition of collaborative learning spaces, Rheems will be updated, the district will have the space to allow for full day kindergarten without an addition to East high AND the district will have room to GROW (because let’s face it, predictions can be wrong).