A special board of education meeting is scheduled for March 8 to discuss the re-purposing of Ripley-Union-Lewis-Huntington Middle School.
The Ripley-Union-Lewis-Huntington Board of Education will hold a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. on March 8 at the RULH Middle School in Aberdeen to discuss the repurposing of the middle school.
“What we are doing is looking into repurposing,” RULH Superintendent James Wilkins said of the middle school in Aberdeen.
According to Wilkins, the RULH School District has seen a significant drop in enrollment in recent years.
The drop in enrollment has made it difficult for RULH to fill and operate three school buildings, and with the middle school being the only building located in Aberdeen the school district could also save on costs involved with bus transportation.
Repurposing the middle school would involve relocating educators and students to another building. The RULH Elementary School and the RULH High School are both located in Ripley.
The RULH Middle School could be used for a number of other purposes such as an alternative school for Brown County students, but the RULH Board of Education has not yet made a decision on whether or not to change the way the middle school is being used.
Wilkins said he will go over the details of his plans for the middle school while presenting the plans to board of education members during the March 8 meeting.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the current RULH Middle School was held in 2003, and the school opened around two years later.
For more details on the potential repurposing of the RULH Middle School, be on the lookout for the March 2 editions of The News Democrat and The Ripley Bee.