About five years ago, in an effort to focus on our students “in the middle” and with the hope that it would improve our academic achievement, an experimental middle school was developed in Randolph. Teachers in grades 5-8 came together to work as a team with Middle School principal, William Caldwell.
At today’s middle school faculty meeting, Mr. Caldwell announced our transition plan to revert to a K-6/7-12 configuration for the district. The transition plan will take place over the next eighteen months, with the dissolution of the middle school by July of 2010. Out of respect to Mr. Caldwell and his Middle School faculty, we took the time to talk to them in person today and now I would like to provide everyone in the district with further information.
Before explaining the changes, I would like to thank the teachers in grades 5-8 who came together to work as a team with Middle School principal, William Caldwell. I appreciate the time, effort and passion that you invested in the middle school concept. Thank you.
The middle school concept was not without challenges in a district of our size, including the physical separation of fifth and sixth grade at the elementary school and seventh and eighth grade at the high school. There’s also been the question of whether or not a school district with 1,000 students warrants three principals. A lot went right with our middle school, largely due to excellent teachers and a caring principal who clearly loves working with our students. A “Capturing Kids Hearts” initiative, good student achievement, the implementation of Thoughtful Classroom strategies and a team approach to middle level students are a few of the successes.
As we consider our economic future and prepare to keep our district in strong financial condition, we must consider the gains vs. costs of maintaining a separate middle school in Randolph. In my estimation, we have to take a “big picture” three to five year approach to planning. I don’t want to be like the big three automakers, looking back five years from now and realizing we should have planned differently, been more cautious, adjusted our programs. My goal is to keep this district in the solid financial condition in which I find it today, while maintaining our programs to the best of our ability. Therefore, I will work with the administrative team and the Board of Education to make good decisions about what’s necessary as we look forward three to five years.
We can’t consider cuts to our teaching and support staffs without first looking hard at our administrative team costs. This means that we will spend the next eighteen months transitioning back to a K-6 elementary school and a 7-12 high school. We will not move our sixth graders over to the high school as was once planned. We will continue to offer our sixth graders exposure to special area classes in the high school and will maintain a separate wing for seventh and eighth grade, with developmentally appropriate activities specifically for middle level students.
Over the next several months we will have lots of conversation at the administrative team level and with teachers and support staff to plan for the transition back to an elementary/high school district. I’m confident that we can continue the excellent work that’s currently under way. And I know that our administrative team will work together to fill any gaps left from our loss of a middle school principal position.
If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know via whatever means of communication works best for you: email, on the blog, via telephone or in person. I always want to know what’s on your mind. I will continue to think out loud on this blog, Randolph Writes, and welcome your comments there. This is one effort to make sure everyone in the district has good information about what’s happening and provide one more place for feedback.
Stacey,
Thank you so much for taking the time to write a thoughtful and respectful comment. This is exactly what the blog is for–a chance to hear many different viewpoints.
Your point about transitioning our sixth graders into the high school building is very much on our minds. We hope to maintain as many of the programs as possible, including the sixth grade coming over for exploratory subjects and the seventh/eighth grades functioning separately from the high school students to the extent practicable. We will always plan for these students in the “middle” in ways that are developmentally appropriate.
I understand how you feel about my announcement of this change after I’ve only been here for six weeks. Please know that I’m making decisions in collaboration with our BOE members, many of whom have served for decades, and with our administrative team and teacher leadership. Even during my interview process, this was a topic that came up frequently.
I was here as the high school principal when the middle school was formed, I’d served as an assistant principal in Frontier Middle (1400 students in grades 6-8) and I taught grades 7-12 for ten years at Pine Valley. We have a middle school in my home district of Gowanda. I come to Randolph with some varied experiences with the middle level and it’s a hard transition to get right. Our kids are figuring out who they are at this age, their peers can become much more important to them than their parents, and there can be a lot of mean spiritedness between children.
While I didn’t come to the decision to keep the sixth grade at the elementary school on my own, I do believe it’s in the best interest of our students. Annie Metcalf, Principal at North Collins, who commented first, cites research that proves what I’ve found in my nineteen years in education. The negative effects of moving our students into the middle/high school environment early outweigh any possible gains.
Our children are growing up so quickly and the 7th/8th grade years are often challenging developmentally. Let’s keep our fifth and sixth graders young just as long as we can.
In regard to the addition, that is a technology center planned to house an expanded agriculture program and our extensive technology programs. I reviewed the publications sent at the time of the vote prior to making any decisions so that I could honor what the taxpayers voted for in the project. The changes to the classrooms planned if the sixth grade moved over are not significant enough, as confirmed with SED, to warrant another vote.
I greatly appreciate your comments and look forward to working with you and your children over the next several years. I hope you’ll always let me know what you’re thinking so that I can consider all the angles. Reading your thoughts reaffirms my commitment to ease that transition from elementary to high school in other ways.
Kimberly
I am a parent of a 7th grader at RCS. When our family first encountered the middle school program, I was skeptical and honestly was not a huge supporter. My opinion has since changed, as my daughter and our family has learned what the middle school program has to offer. Middle school gives the students a sense of independence; an opportunity for growth and social maturing; and time ~ time to acclimate to the expectations of the transition from grade school to high school. It’s a bridge to cross before Senior High. Don’t get me wrong, there have been roadblocks with the program, but roadblocks that have been overcome.
I attended Randolph and my biggest fear was my 7th grade year. Making my way across the parking lot to the “big school”; being forced to walk down jammed hallways with Senior High students who had no time for lower classman; and grasping the concepts of schedules and several teachers’ different expectations. The current set up eases the students into the transition and gives them time to grow into Jr. High.
Honestly, I believe the 5th grade should be incorporated into the elementary school, but I believe 6-8 grades should be a middle school in one building. One building/one wing…that’s what the tax payers were promised for several years. That was the business case behind the capital project, unless I was mistaken. What is the school going to tell tax payers now? I guess I myself am unsure what exactly the addition is for.
I mean absolutely no disrespect to you and as a parent I continually support our school and its efforts, but how can you truly tell us after such a short amount of time in our district that you have captured enough data to assess the successes and failures of the middle school program and come to this conclusion? Again, I don’t mean to seem out of line, it seems like a fair question. I have been a part of this school district for 30+ years and I have a lot I can gauge my opinion on.
I think we are doing a disservice to our students by dismantling the middle school program. I appreciate the time you have put into your blog entry and I also the opportunity as a parent to share our thoughts and feelings.
I heard you wondering in your blog if you had heard enough voices to convince you that bringing 6th grade ‘up’ was not a good idea. There was a time here in our small school that we were exploring the idea of bringing our 6th grade to the 7th and 8th grade building. As I scoured for some valid information on this issue, I found a solid body of research on this exact subject. Duke University and the University of California at Berkley teamed up to create a study with using a very large number of middle school students. The results showed that 6th graders who were not in an elementary setting but in a middle or junior high school suffered negative effects lasting through 9th grade! These research papers can be found at
http://www.pubpol.duke.edu/research/papers/
I will email you the summary article. It convinced us!