A committee examining a controversial plan to reduce school size in Natchez-Adams County will meet with an expert on school alignment tonight.

Educational consultant Reuben Dillworth will meet at 6:30 p.m. with the Natchez-Adams School District Educational Facility Plan for K-6 Committee at Braden School on Homochitto Street.

School Board President Kenneth Taylor said Dillworth will answer the committee’s questions on different methods for grouping students in school, including such plans as having separate schools for younger and older elementary students or keeping them together in a kindergarten to sixth-grade school.

&uot;The purpose of inviting (Dillworth) here is to offer current research in general on K-6 configuration,&uot; Taylor said.

The district formed the committee to get community input on a proposed plan to reduce school size.

The plan includes opening Braden School as a K-6 school and converting Frazier Primary, West Primary, McLaurin Elementary and Morgantown Elementary into kindergarten to sixth-grade schools.

The school district operates under a 1989 federal integration court order and cannot make changes without federal court approval.

Eventually, the committee, made up of district staff, parents and community residents, will report its findings to the school board.

Plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit which forced the 1989 reorganization of schools have been invited to the committee’s meetings.