Monroe County’s two middle schools will consolidate beginning next school year.

The school board voted 6-1 for the plan Tuesday night, which will create Monroe County Middle School. Board member J.P. Evans voted against the proposal.

Beginning in August 2012, about 330 sixth-graders will be attending Monroe County Middle School at the William Hubbard campus, Superintendent Anthony Pack said. About 620 seventh- and eighth-graders will attend classes at the Banks Stephens campus.

“We listened to what the public had to say,” Pack said.

In December, school board members heard a plan to consolidate the middle schools, but board members put off a vote after wide-ranging discussions that included potential cost savings, the size of classes and the impact on existing programs.

Pack said Wednesday that the moves should save more than $500,000. Savings in operation costs could help generate new programs for Monroe’s middle school students, such as foreign language courses, officials have said.

Keeping the system’s sixth-graders together mirrors the idea behind the Mary Persons Freshman Campus, which separates ninth-graders from older students to ease their transition into high school. School officials had considered moving ninth-graders, Pack said, but in the end decided that they would be best served where they are now.

The freshman campus, which opened in fall 2007, has helped boost retention rates and has created a more focused learning environment, school officials said.

Monroe officials will have to work out details of the change, such as staffing for the schools, new signs and moving furniture.

Pack said he would know more about staffing for the schools in the coming weeks, when retirements and resignations firm up.

The school for sixth-graders will be a first in the midstate.

Marietta city schools, as well as Cobb and Tift counties, have such schools.