The Springfield Township School District might see a change in the structure of schools next year, a move that administrators propose would help to accommodate larger enrollment numbers and benefit the educational and extracurricular experiences of current students.

The proposed plan for the 2010-2011 school year is to make Enfield Elementary a facility for only kindergarten and first grade. Students in second through fifth grades would attend Erdenheim Elementary. This would move the fifth-graders from Springfield Township Middle School to elementary school.

Grades six through eight would be in the middle school, and grades nine through 12 would attend Springfield Township High School. Currently, eighth-graders attend the high school.

“There are a lot of things to consider and we want to make sure to get parent input,” Superintendent Wendy Royer said Tuesday at the school board meeting.

Public forums on this proposal will take place later this month.

Space is the main concern behind the proposal, as increased enrollment in the school system has created an immediate need for more classrooms at Enfield, according to officials.

“This year we have exactly enough classrooms” said Karen Alston, principal of Enfield. “Our classes have gotten bigger over the past four years, and by all indications will continue to go in that direction. We’re just feeling the pinch.”

There are currently 413 students enrolled in Enfield, but the building is designed to accommodate 350 to 375, Alston said. Over the past few years it has been difficult to find space for all of the classes, and teachers have had to hold class in areas not designated as instructional spaces, like foyers and hallways, she said.

If this proposal were to become a reality, it would be necessary to add six classrooms to Erdenheim, Royer said.

“The additional classrooms have been a possibility since the beginning of the project,” she said. “As a result of increased enrollment and program need, it’s more fiscally responsible to put them on now as opposed to three years from now.” Administration will look into the costs of adding these classrooms.

With its current enrollment numbers, the new Erdenheim Elementary School on Haws Lane will open next year with hardly any extra rooms to accommodate larger classes in the future, Royer said.

If no steps are taken right now, the administration will need to review attendance boundaries each year, and perhaps have to make changes in the future, she said.

In addition to increasing enrollment, another reason for the proposal is to form a cohesive student group through kindergarten to 12th grades. The current structure of two elementary schools separates students until they reach middle school.

“The principals feel very strongly that having all of the students together is a huge benefit to this plan,” said Royer.

“I tend to favor it,” said school board President Malcolm Gran. “I think one of the issues that I see at Springfield is that Springfield is not simply one community. There are distinct sections that I feel don’t have communication with the others that they should.”

Other reasons for the proposal include the need to address facility and program inequity between the two elementary schools and to increase resources and ensure more consistent class sizes, Royer said.

There are also educational and extracurricular advantages of moving fifth-graders to elementary school and eighth-graders to the middle school, she said. The proposal reflects research that eighth-graders are more appropriate in a middle school, rather than at a high school, she said.

Springfield Township High School senior Rebecca Davner said that attending high school as an eighth-grader offered a beneficial transition period that helped her become accustomed to high school before her grades began to count on her transcript toward college admission.

“I think that having that leeway time is really important because I know it helped me adjust to a new schedule,” she said. “You’re more adjusted when you get into the ninth grade and you can choose an elective, you can choose a language and you’re ready for that kind of stuff.”

Community member Colleen Robinson voiced concern that restructuring the school would make it difficult for families with child in kindergarten or first-grade in Enfield and an older child in Erdenheim.

A town hall meeting on the proposal as it related to the elementary schools will be held Sept. 21 at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium. There will be another meeting Sept. 25 for parents of seventh-graders.