Based on community input, Randolph County Schools Board of Education may consider a new option for the realignment of schools in the Archdale-Trinity area.

Two options had been posted on the Web site for public input: turn Archdale Elementary into a sixth-grade school and Braxton-Craven into a seventh- and eighth-grade school, or leave the schools as they are and possibly separate students into two feeder tracks at Archdale-Trinity Middle School — one track to feed into Trinity High School and the other to Wheatmore High School.

According to the Board, the impetus behind any change is to prevent friends and athletic teams from splitting up as they move up to high school and to alleviate overcrowding at several elementary schools.

The school board does not expect to have money to build a new middle school for another generation, about 15 to 20 years.

In the first option, to convert Archdale Elementary into a sixth-grade school, parents and teachers had expressed concern about breaking up the Title I school because it has successfully met or exceeded standards.

Marty Trotter, assistant superintendent of operations, tried to summarize the responses for the Board’s Dec. 14 meeting, but the 14 people who replied had different opinions.

“I was hoping there would be a clear-cut response,” he said.

Three people said they would rather add sixth grade to all of the elementary schools, an option that had been ruled out last month because of higher costs and overcrowding. Two respondents would turn Trindale Elementary into a sixth-grade school, instead of Archdale.

Two expressed approval of the second option, to leave the schools as they are.

In the new option, Trotter said that a couple of people proposed the addition of a sixth grade to Trindale, with students who would go to seventh and eighth grades at Braxton-Craven and then to Trinity High School. He had looked at the numbers and that option would work. Trindale has enough extra space to house those sixth-grade students.

Trotter plans to calculate the cost of converting Trindale into a kindergarten through sixth grade school and will present the option to the Board at a work session in January.

On Jan. 12, the Board of Education will meet with Randolph County Commissioners in the morning, then discuss the school alignment at an afternoon work session. Superintendent Donald Andrews wants a decision about the Archdale-Trinity Schools in time to implement it for the 2010-11 school year.