The Beverly Hills Unified School District will host community forums on Jan. 10-11 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the high school’s Salter Theatre to discuss possible reconfiguration of its four K-8 schools.

The district assembled a 22-member Future Focused Schools Team of stakeholders last year to examine possibilities for reconfiguration. Board of Education members have said over the last year that maintaining four K-8 schools has driven up costs and limited programming. But some parents have spoken in support of the K-8 model, citing studies that say they have more advantages for students.

The Beverly Hills Unified School District and a stakeholder group are exploring possible options for reconfiguration. (Park Labrea News/Beverly Press file photo)

District Superintendent Michael Bregy will lead a presentation at the beginning of each session, followed by a chance for attendees to talk to Future Focused Schools team members and educational experts during small group sessions.

The Future Focused Schools Team, comprised of district faculty, parents and other Beverly Hills stakeholders, said in an open letter to the community last month that it is “not locked into any single position.”

“We may find more than one solution in this process,” team members said. “We are not tasked with a school board or administrative agenda. We are not burdened by budgetary expectations, and we operate under no cloud of a systemic bias. We are in conversation with each other and with the community.”

Future Focused Schools Team members have attended a series of meetings from October through December. They toured each of the schools, reviewed budgetary and enrollment data, and received community input to help develop recommendations for the school board to eventually consider.

“Our meetings and homework involve analysis of the facts: finances, enrollment, delivery of education at the primary, middle school and high school levels, enrichment programs, counseling, intervention, transitions, special ed, athletics, facilities, and more,” team members said. “We are looking at the history of our district, listening to the hopes and dreams of current parents, students and teachers, as well as researching the systems utilized by competitive districts and private schools in our area. With that in mind, we are diving deeply into a look at the current/future BHUSD TK-8 model (or some version of that), and options for a BHUSD version of the TK-5/6-8 model.”

Some parents have spoken in support of the K-8 model, citing studies that say they have more advantages for students.

But with the district’s four middle school model, curricular options, extracurricular options, flexible scheduling of students and teacher collaboration options are limited compared to their potential in another type of configuration, Bregy said in a presentation to the school board last month.

“The K-8 model doesn’t work for our district,” Future Focused Schools member Tristen Walker, an alumna of the district who has two children at El Rodeo School and two at Beverly Hills High School, previously told the board. “That doesn’t mean it can never work for our district; what it means is that right now that’s the dinosaur and we cannot sustain in this format where we are today. So something has to change.”

Team member Jory Lindsay, a teacher at Hawthorne School, added that “the status quo is not educationally sound.”

Parents, residents and other stakeholders can visit tinyurl.com/bhffst to submit questions or comments to the district.

“The mere thought of change may feel uncomfortable to many in our community, but we are tasked with working toward securing a sustainable, vibrant, world-class 21st century education system,” the Future Focused Schools team wrote to the community. “A system that is consistent with our current budget and provides for all of the children and families in our community. We would love to hear from you, and please remember that our work is far from done. On the contrary, it is still in progress and we welcome your ideas, solutions, fears, hopes and dreams. Please join us in this ongoing conversation.”