School staff concerned over grade transitions

Similar to the complaints Columbia residents expressed during communitywide forums last week, concerns were voiced by Columbia Public School District employees about the four school transitions students undergo throughout their K-12 careers at a district employee forum Tuesday.

Teachers and other school district staff were given the opportunity Tuesday to take surveys targeting long-term goals for school facilities, services and programs. Gentry, Lange and Smithton middle schools’ media centers served as meeting places for all district employees who discussed their reactions to facility-related issues after taking the surveys. Parents and other citizens had the chance to take the same surveys at 18 community forums Sept. 19.

The Community Engagement Task Force — composed of school officials and community members — compiled the survey, which aims to measure the community’s educational priorities, and how successfully the district is meeting them.

One of the most discussed issues is the question of how to configure grade separations. The current configuration places kindergarten through fifth grades in elementary school, sixth and seventh grades in middle school, eighth and ninth grades in junior high school, and grades 10 through 12 in high school.

The district moved to the four-school transition model to alleviate crowding and to reach a compromise among those who felt sixth-graders were too old for elementary school and ninth-graders were too young for high school, said assistant superintendent Mary Laffey. The 1996-97 school year was the first year the model was adopted in Columbia. Neither Hickman High School nor Rock Bridge High School had the space to accommodate four grade levels, but the concept of a “stand alone” school for either ninth- or sixth-graders was also unpopular, Laffey said.

Concerns remain, however, that the four transitions have a negative impact on students’ social and educational growth. “Adding another transition during one of the greatest transition periods of a young person’s life is tough,” Laffey said. “Adolescence is already not an easy thing.”

Currently, ninth-graders participate in high school extracurricular activities, and their overall high school grade-point average includes ninth grade. Some teachers said that if ninth-graders attended classes alongside older high school students, they would take their studies more seriously and have more opportunities to participate in school activities.

“Since high school sports start in ninth grade, and grades start counting toward college in ninth grade, it makes sense to combine ninth-graders with the rest of high school as long as we have the facilities to hold larger numbers,” said Susan Robinson, the district coordinator of health services, who came to Smithton to take the survey.

Although only a handful of staff members showed up at the middle schools to take the surveys, Laffey said she was not discouraged by the low turnout because she thinks more teachers, district staff and community members people will take it online. About 500 Columbia residents have already completed the surveys, which are available on the district’s Web site until mid-October.