NATCHEZ — The Natchez-Adams County School Board should move students out of Robert Lewis Middle School and restructure the district to a three-tier, elementary-middle school-high school system, Consultant Gary Bailey said.

“I have been dreading this discussion,” Bailey said. “I have prayed over this, and I do not think (the Robert Lewis Middle School) building has the capacity to continue.”

“I am sensitive to the heritage of that building and the culture of that neighborhood, but it is not what is best for children.”

Bailey, an educational and architectural consultant hired by the school district to help restructure the system for maximum academic efficiency, made those statements Tuesday at a special meeting of the school board.

The consultant was quick to emphasize that the building was safe for students, but he said RLMS’s concrete slab foundations have started to creep, and while the creep can be halted it would ultimately cost as much as a new building.

The building also has many spaces where students can hide, he said.

“Middle school students need unique management, and that building is as hard to manage as any,” he said. “I am telling you to start looking for another option for a middle school.”

Bailey presented the board with several restructuring options. The plans Bailey said he favored “more pure academic programs” — grades kindergarten through five in one school, grades six through 8 in a middle school, and a high school.

The first option was to take the four existing elementary schools and convert them all to kindergarten through grade five schools.

The problem with that model is money.

“It is a wonderful thing to have small schools, but it is expensive to have small schools,” Bailey said.

Another option, Bailey said, would be to close the two smaller elementary schools — West Primary and Frazier Primary School — and have two large kindergarten through fifth grade schools.

In light of his comments about RLMS, however, Bailey suggested closing the existing middle school and one of the smaller elementaries, making two kindergarten to grade five schools and converting the existing facilities at McLaurin or Morgantown Elementary into a junior high school.

McLaurin is more centrally located, but Morgantown is better equipped to become a middle school, Bailey said. Morgantown is laid out in wings that can be grade segregated.

“McLaurin is at the middle of your district, but it is more of a challenge as a middle school, it has the same (student management) issues as RLMS,” he said.