> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.middletownobserver.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Q&A: Dr. Joseph Meloche, Superintendent of RTMSD (Pt. 2) - URL: https://www.middletownobserver.com/qa-dr-joseph-meloche-superintendent-part-2/ - Published: 2026-08-06T16:11:26.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-06T17:07:52.000Z - Description: Middletown Observer sat down with Superintendent Joseph Meloche to dig into the questions residents are asking about the K-1 Center: why not expand an existing school, and what redistricting means for kids. Part 2 of 2. - Author: Paul, Middletown Observer - Tags: Rose Tree Media School District MEDIA, Pa. — Dr. Joseph Meloche recently sat down with Middletown Observer for an interview about the proposed K-1 Center. Rather than recapping the general project, I wanted to ask him about the [current issues Middletown residents are discussing](https://www.middletownobserver.com/rose-tree-media-k1-center-explained/). This is part two of a two-part interview. You can read [part one here](https://www.middletownobserver.com/qa-dr-joseph-meloche-superintendent-part-1/). *Discussion has been lightly edited for length and clarity.* ### Middletown Observer: Walk me through why additions can't go on the existing schools. **Dr. Meloche**: Start with Media Elementary. It's a beautiful school. That stone will last forever. You are not putting more classrooms there. You're not even putting trailers there, right? You're not building up. Then you start to look at the other schools: Indian Lane, Glenwood, and Rose Tree - to put in an addition on a building that was designed 50, 70 years ago? None of them are great sites for a build. Indian Lane is probably the best possible site to put an addition because of the layout. But you don't do it without an incredible amount of site work, because there's a dramatic slope on which the school sits. To do an addition on Glenwood or Rose Tree would mean the capturing of the fields and the opportunity for kids to play. And other things don't change: parking, arrival and dismissal space, cafeteria size, gym space, library size, and the number of spaces available for reading specialists, math support, speech, OT, and PT. ### **Middletown Observer: What other building areas would need to change if additions were built?** **Dr. Meloche**: The cafeteria, all-purpose room or gym, hallway space to move kids around, accessibility and space for buses and parent drop-off/pick-up, the library, and special area type rooms for speech, OT, and PT. Bathroom space for the general population of the building, and the opportunity for space when there's a parent event to get parents into the building. And if additions went on three schools but not Media, you're looking at the shift of where children attend. ### Middletown Observer: So if students would shift where they attend in this scenario, what happens if there's redistricting? **Dr. Meloche**: Redistricting means looking at where children live and where they attend school, to make the best functional opportunity for the right kids to go to the right buildings. This ties into the discussion around building another K-5 school. Redistricting would have happened should we have opened the school in Edgmont. That means there would be children that currently attend Glenwood that no longer attend Glenwood. They would attend a new school. You have children at Indian Lane that might go to Glenwood. You have children at Rose Tree that would definitely go to a different school. And the same thing at Media. ### Middletown Observer: If a child in, say, second grade got redistricted, what would that mean for them? **Dr. Meloche**: Whether a child stays or moves has been handled different ways in different districts. It would definitely mean a different space for them. That's why, when we open this new building, it'll just be kindergarten that first year. And then we'll add first grade the second year, because we're not going to take kids that have gone to kindergarten in these other four elementary schools and move them over to the K-1 Center for a year. ### Middletown Observer: You could say with the K-1 Center, they're moving schools from first to second grade. But it seems like the alternative is also moving schools. **Dr. Meloche**: Should we open another K-5, or do nothing, or put additions, there's a large group of children that will be moving schools. What does that look like for kindergarteners and first graders to be in a school for two years? As an educator, I believe the children will thrive. Five- and six-year-olds are incredibly resilient. The struggle with it is usually with the adults. One upside I'm most excited about: the four elementary schools in some ways operate independently. \[Parent Teacher Groups\], activities, and the structure of community support. This K-1 Center ties all five schools together. Once the PTG starts and goes through, you're going to have people in all four of the schools who are connected. I love hearing about families that tell me that their kids met at preschool programs. Even though they go to different elementary schools, they match back up again in middle school, then match back up in high school. As people come together and drift and then come back together, it provides that opportunity. Academically, having all kindergarten teachers together working on how we can improve, to talk about what they're doing, to thrive, to balance and make the experiences of children consistent: it's such a great opportunity.