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NewsBoard will proceed with current middle school 6-8 grade configurationAt its April 24 meeting, the School Board paused the District's boundary process to consider an idea from the community. During the public meetings hosted by the Boundaries Task Force, several parents raised the possibility of reconfiguring the middle grades to create a 6th grade center and two 7-8 middle schools, each feeding one of the District's high schools as Chanhassen High opens in 2009. Because the idea of changing grade configuration was beyond the charge of the Boundaries Task Force, the School Board made it the focus of its April work session. Last night, in a three-hour meeting, the Board heard parents speak on both sides of the 6th grade center. Following the public comment portion of the meeting, the Board also heard from Assistant Superintendent Lynn Scearcy, Pioneer Ridge Middle School Principal Dana Miller, and Curriculum Coordinator Cathy Gallagher on their view of the programmatic issues associated with the 6th grade center proposal. Several issues were raised. They did note that research is limited on the issue of single grade buildings at this level. And, they stressed that if the Board chose to create a 6th grade center, the District would make it work as we have with the Kindergarten Center and the 9th grade center. However, they also indicated their professional recommendation would be to keep the current 6-8 configuration. They sited the success of the current program and the planning already in progress for the secondary program redesign as key factors in keeping the 6-8 buildings. In addition, the size of the incoming 6th grade class in fall of 2009 would be large enough that housing a 6th grade center at Pioneer Ridge would be impractical in the long term. It would require placing the center at either CMS East or CMS West. That, in turn, would create an imbalance in enrollment at buildings housing 7th and 8th graders. After weighing all the night's discussion, the School Board directed the superintendent to continue the work of the Boundary Task Force assuming that the 6-8 grade configuration remains in place. The Boundary Task Force will begin meeting again soon, to continue development of a final proposal for recommendation to the Board, perhaps as early as next month. | |||||||
