The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG - Change is never easy and some parents in the community are having difficulty wrapping their minds around the fact that the Waitsburg fourth, fifth and sixth graders will be in intermediate, mixed-grade level classes next year.

However, combining grade levels is not a new concept for the district that has combined grade students in the past to handle enrollment fluctuations, district officials say.

Forty-eight children will be in the fourth, fifth and sixth split starting in the fall. The split class will help the district reduce its budget and will allow the district to better deal...