Superintendent Colleen Palmer and the Westport Board of Education decided to send all sixth graders to the elementary schools next year in order to solve the current spacing issues at Bedford Middle School and Staples High School. This plan also involves placing all Westport seventh and eighth graders at Bedford Middle School indefinitely.

The decision came on Tuesday, Dec. 18 after months of discussing long-term solutions to where Coleytown Middle School students would attend school next year .

“It’s unrealistic to think that it [the current placement of CMS students] would only be a one year solution based on the current situation and reports from the engineers with the CMS building and what it would take to get that back up online,” CMS Principal Kris Szabo said.

The current arrangement of CMS students has received complaints from parents, teachers and students. However, the new plan would address the concern of eighth graders being located in the high school and using up its classrooms, as well as reduce the number of students in Bedford by moving the full sixth grade class out and replacing them with the eighth grade class.

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