The Washoe County School District has wrapped up their second community engagement meeting regarding possible changes to Pine and Traner Middle Schools.
We reported on Tuesday's meeting with residents zoned for Pine. Today the school district gathered input from neighbors at Traner.
As a part of their 2023 Facility Modernization Plan, the school district is thinking about turning Pine and Traner into Pre-k through 8th grade schools, but no decisions will be made without hearing what the community has to say about it first.
"This is something that's popular across the country," said Paul Mills, Senior Vice President Educational Planner for CannonDesign. "You actually have some charter schools within your community here in the Reno-Sparks area that are operating that model and it's something that before we make major investments in capital projects, that we want to take the time to study and see if there's a better way to serve these communities."
Mills says Traner's enrollment has been decreasing over the past few years so rebuilding and remodeling the school can help add more space, increase enrollment, allow more opportunities for different programs, and have more staff and administration all on one campus.
However, much like the last meeting, parents are expressing their concerns for student safety.
"I have kids that go both here and over to Duncan, but they have a lot of fights here so I'm worried that the younger kids would be possibly mixed into that and possibly get hurt," said Keti Gonzalez Depaz, Reno resident.
The school district tells us they are aware of parents' concerns for safety and say it can be addressed through the building design.
"First and foremost to create the physical separation while on the same campus they could be separate from each other, but we have the benefit that there actually can be some role modeling and peer to peer sorts of interactions," said Mills.
One parent who has attended both meetings says the school district should focus investing their money on fixing the schools' current issues such as problematic student behavior rather than future projects.
"What they think is cool, whatever is driving them regardless of if it's gangs, drugs, or what have you, I think the motive is, you know, being driven by 'This is more important than my education,'" said Antonio Angulo Jr., Reno resident.
He tells us he hopes the school district continues this discussion with the community on these school's futures.
"I would love to see a future meeting to cover stuff. I want this momentum to keep going and not get tucked under the rug," he said.
No decisions or changes have been made. This meeting is purely to get input from the community.
