VIDALIA, La. — &uot;Excited&uot;&160;was the only word upcoming Vidalia third-grader Kaytlyn Walker could find to describe her feelings on moving to a brand new school next year. On Tuesday, Concordia Parish School Board Attorney Norman Magee announced that a federal judge had approve the district’s plan to move third grades in Ferriday and Vidalia to upper elementaries starting with the 2000-01 year to help improve test scores.

&uot;I don’t have a problem with it,&uot;&160;said Kaytlyn’s mother, Liz Walker, who did her homework by discussing the change with Vidalia Upper Elementary Principal Ross Dyer and teachers at the school.

The change, which would affect about 157 third-graders, would be in place for the 2000-01 school year. The plan would also move kindergarten and pre-K classes in Ferriday to Ferriday Lower Elementary. The district has not yet decided how Ferriday Kindergarten Center will be used.

The reasoning is that having third-graders in upper elementaries — now only fourth and fifth grades — would let those schools better prepare students for the LEAP Test. Fourth- and eighth-graders must pass LEAP to move to the next grades.

Third- and fourth-grade &uot;teachers would probably work more closely if they were at the same school, and if that helps the children with the LEAP Test, that would be a good thing,&uot;&160;Walker said.

So that third-graders will have less anxiety about being the youngest children at a new school, they will be separate from other students, except at school assemblies, and will have their own lunch and recess times.

They will have a separate playground and a separate lunch period.

In the next two months, the district will order nine temporary buildings, transfer six or seven teachers to different schools and move textbooks and equipment among schools to accommodate the change, said Superintendent Lester &uot;Pete&uot; Peterman.

&uot;I&160;wish they had built facilities for them instead of having them in portable buildings, but as long as they continue the educational programs they had at the other school, … I really don’t object to it,&uot; Walker said.

Dyer said accommodating additional students should not be a problem for his school because, at one time, it housed sixth-grade students as well as fourth and fifth grades.

And he believes the small inconveniences of moving will reap big rewards in the end.

&uot;Not just in terms of LEAP, but it’s also a good grouping of students and it will better equalize the number of students at each school in Vidalia,&uot; Dyer said.

For pre-K teacher Margaret Fudickar, who has taught at Ferriday Kindergarten Center for 13 years, the move will be a homecoming of sorts.

Before starting at the Kindergarten Center, she taught at Ferriday Lower Elementary. In fact, that is where she started teaching 28 years ago.

&uot;We (pre-K and kindergarten) teachers were happy where we were, because having just us at one school was an ideal situation,&uot;&160;said Fudickar, who does like the fact that pre-K and kindergarten students will be separate from older students in their new school.

&uot;We were upset about the move, but if it’s for the betterment of the children, to help their scores improve, … we’ll just make the best of it. We’ll just have to wait and see.&uot;