A committee of parents, teachers and administrators in the Central Kitsap School District will begin work in April on a plan for where to house sixth graders throughout the district.

The committee is currently being formed, said David Beil, school district spokesman. The committee will meet at least monthly in April, May, June and next September to formalize a recommendation to the CK board of education which is expected to make a decision by Oct. 8.

A timeline for the committee’s work was approved at last week’s school board meeting.

According to a presentation made at the meeting, the options available to the committee for study are: That all sixth graders will move to the middle schools in the district; that some sixth graders will move to middle schools; or that sixth graders will stay at the elementary schools.

The district recently determined that due to enrollment numbers, the ninth graders will move to the high schools this fall. That leaves just the seventh and eighth graders at the middle schools or junior highs next year.

The students enrolled at Central Kitsap, Ridgetop and Fairview junior high schools will move to Olympic or Central Kitsap high schools by this fall. Ninth graders will remain at Klahowya Secondary School.

The move is one year ahead of the original plan and equipment and materials will be moved after July 4.

The committee is being selected internally by the district and membership will be announced soon. Under consideration by the committee will be the building capacity at each junior high, the enrollment numbers at each school, the “middle school model” for education teaching methods, and survey results from former and new surveys taken of parents and staff.

The committee will also consider possible school closures and/ or repurposing potential of each school.

“There will be no changes this year in the fall for sixth graders,” said Beil. “What the board ultimately chooses to do will not take place until the fall of 2015 for the 2015-16 school year.”

Beil added that the district now has junior high schools, but in the future if something were to change with sixth graders moving up then the district could change to a middle school model.

At the same meeting, the board discussed its district attendance areas policy. Beil said this was just an update of a previous policy that addresses occasional changes in school attendance areas when there are transfers of students between schools.

“Generally, when these things come up, the district will allow the transfer if there is space available,” he said. “State law in Washington is that transfers are OK, with the main criteria being whether there is space.”

The action by the board was to bring the district’s written policy in line with its current practices, he said.

The board also approved surplus items for auction on April 12. Among the list of items to be sold are white boards, filing cabinets, teacher and student desks, tables, projectors, cameras, tape recorders, printers, radios, a fish tank, paper cutter and three kitchen grills.

From time-to-time the district will surplus items that it no longer is using, Beil said.

“It’s one of the ways the district gets rid of things when there no use for them any longer,” he said.

The next auction is April 12 at 10 a.m. at the Tracyton Elementary Annex. Preview of the items is at 9 a.m.