Craig County will have middle school students this year, but no middle school.
A new building may be down the road, but no plans are currently in the offing for such. Regardless, the school division has implemented a middle school program. This will be the first official term under the new system.
Greg Stick, the assistant principal at Criag County High School is the administrator of the middle school. Because it does not have a separate building, no principal is needed, but there are administrative needs because the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades will be considered independent.
Stick said some people might be concerned that radical changes are in store for the school system, but that’s not the case. He said the addition of mobile classrooms last year was a more dramatic change than the final implementation of the middle school plan. There will be an orientation session for sixth, seventh and eighth graders and their parents during the week of Aug. 22, but final plans have not been confirmed.
The sixth and seventh grades had been in McCleary Elementary school prior to last year, when they were moved into the mobile units outside the high school. They will remain in those detached classrooms this year and likely until new accommodations are built.
The change this year comes largely in scheduling. The eighth grade will be kept as much as possible, toward the eat end of the building, close to the seventh and eighth grades.
That will not be possible in all cases, Stick said, such as during physical science when students will need to use the classrooms equipped for science.
One change is that the sixth, seventh and eighth grades will have their own lunch period. Also, sixth and seventh graders will take physical education as part of the high school program, rather than the elementary program of the past.
Team teaching has been used on the eighth-grade level, and will be likely be expanded into the sixth and seventh grades. Each of those grade levels now has two teachers, one for math and sciences and one for language arts and social studies.
Those grade levels will feature more exploratory classes in the near future.
Stick said the major benefit of a middle school program is autonomy for the students-they can feel like they have their own identity. He said eight graders need a year at the top of the heap before becoming a high school freshman. Also, sixth and seventh graders are too old to be part of an effective elementary school environmentone where most facilities and programs are designed and geared for small children.
There will be much less contact in the high school between eighth grade students and those in grades nine through 12.
Stick said parents concerned about the change should look at the middle school concept as an educational system that has proven effective, not a radical change in the school itself.
-Prepared by Shelly Koon
