Published in the Sept. 2-15, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Glen Webb
Morgan Hill students have exciting opportunities ahead as our school district embarks on restructuring projects. Starting next year (2016-2017), sixth graders will be moving to the middle schools. The district will also expand kindergarten through eighth grade options by growing a seventh grade at San Martin/Gwinn to be followed by an eighth grade the following year.
San Martin/Gwinn houses both the environmental science academy and the Dual Immersion Language Academy and will join Jackson Academy of Math and Music as a K-8 focus academy option.
The move has many advantages but has caused two understandable reactions: concerns from parents around the issues of earlier transition to a secondary format and excitement around the opportunities that this will create for our students.
The Morgan Hill Unified School District School Board approved the move at its Aug. 4 meeting following a recommendation based on work done by a parent, staff and administrative advisory committee that met last year.
A total of eight advisory committee meetings were convened from December to May and such issues as curriculum, extra-curricular opportunities, elective choices, social emotional programs, research, transportation and facilities were studied.
The committee shared its work and solicited parent input at an additional eight meetings held last spring. Parents saw some opportunities in the move: such as alignment with new science standards which are in sixth through eighth formats; and increasing the opportunities for students with activities, clubs, sports, supports and enrichments, all of which are more possible with the economy of scale gained when students come together in comprehensive middle schools.
But parents also had many concerns around sixth-grade students having to “grow up” earlier, traditional sixth-grade activities such as science camp, possible negative effects like bullying from being around older kids, and difficulty with the transition to multiple teachers in the secondary model at an earlier age.
Some trustees favored a K-8 model district-wide while a majority opted for more choice including the expanded opportunities that comprehensive middle schools can offer. The sixth through eighth grade middle school is the prevalent format in our county, state and country.
Now our charge as a community and as educators is to craft a model program.
Toward that goal, there will be initial community input meetings at 6 p.m. Wednesday Sept. 2 at the Britton Middle School Auditorium (80 W. Central Ave.) and again at 9 a.m. Friday Sept. 4 at the Morgan Hill Unified School District Office (15600 Concord Circle).
At those meetings we will roll up our sleeves together. We will identify categories of concerns and interests as well as brainstorm ideas about such things as science camp, transportation, bell schedules, lunch and brunch, electives, extra-curricular, and social-emotional issues to best support our kids. In short, we will address concerns to design the very best program that we can provide for our students.
All parents are invited to participate and to bring their ideas, an open mind, and a collaborative spirit. Together we can make the most of this exciting opportunity.
Glen Webb is the director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for the Morgan Hill Unified School District. He wrote this column for Morgan Hill Life.
