Gilpin sixth grade options
Elementary or Middle-School?
Gilpin School’s sixth graders may move from the elementary to the secondary school next fall. If they do, it will be the fourth time in eleven years the grade level has ping-ponged between or around the elementary and middle schools. The recommendation for the move was originally announced at the October 20, 2008, Board of Education meeting. At that time, Superintendent Ken Ladouceur said teachers, not parents, were requesting the change.
In 1998, the sixth grade was integrated into the middle-school. Sixth graders were expected to adjust to the secondary school practice of changing classes, classrooms and teachers about every hour, signaled by a bell. Four years later, teachers and parents both questioned the wisdom of launching sixth graders into the secondary schedule. Many students had organizational difficulties. Assignments were written on the white boards in each classroom and sixth graders were expected to keep track of them in planners. That proved to be a challenge. Homework assignments that were completed were going astray in messy lockers or misfiled in the wrong subject folder of bulky trapper-keepers. At age 11-13, sixth grader social skills and maturity can vary widely with each individual. Thrown into the secondary mix, sixth graders were hearing language and seeing behaviors far advanced of their years. Parents had concerns. The answer seemed to be a “transitional” sixth grade.
The transitional sixth grade was set up in two classrooms at the far end of the middle-school wing, next to the library. Two teachers were to be dedicated to the sixth grade, each teaching their subjects in one of the two rooms. The sixth graders were to rotate between just these two rooms with the bell, stopping at their lockers (located directly outside the classrooms) to retrieve books and materials needed next. Contact with older students was limited as the high school classes were mainly on the floor above. The seventh and eighth grades were on the same floor but their classrooms and lockers weren’t interspersed with those of the sixth grade. Social contact came with specials, extra-curricular activities and lunch. Parents were sold on the concept. When their sixth grade students began school in fall of 2001, everything was in place – except the additional teacher. The administration had pulled the funding. Instead of the transitional rotation between two teachers, the sixth graders had the same teacher for all subjects. They had the luxury of an additional classroom but with only one teacher, the situation was more elementary than middle-school. The following year the district hired the second teacher and the transitional sixth grade became a reality. Parents and teachers said it worked well. For a couple of years, the fifth graders were moved to the transitional classrooms, too. Then, in 2005, against the recommendations of the sixth grade teachers, and to the disappointment of the upcoming students, the transitional classrooms were discontinued and the students were moved back to the elementary building.
Now the district is once again looking at moving the sixth grade out of the elementary and back into middle-school. The elementary and secondary principals have scheduled a meeting on April 27th, immediately after school, in the elementary library to discuss the proposed move with parents. Both have said that no decision has yet been made, only a recommendation.