As a result of a recent internal review of data, it became apparent that our middle school students need more direct instruction with literacy and math skills, with additional time for remediation and enrichment in these two areas needed, as well.
After reviewing this data and planning an alternate schedule, our SBDM Council voted to alter the current middle school schedule to better meet the needs of our students. Starting this week, instead of going to six classes (including RTI), students will go to four blocks. These blocks include math, reading/language arts, science/Math RTI and social studies/Reading RTI.
All of a student’s teachers will remain the same, along with their related arts teachers/times and lunch times. The only thing changing is how we distribute the remaining time between these four blocks. This will allow for students to have 80 minutes of both math and reading instruction each day, along with science and social studies, respectively.
Students who are part of our SEAL program taking accelerated courses will continue to receive those same services just as they have been.
Mrs. Jennifer Myers and Mrs. Jodi Stuart have worked diligently to ensure that these schedules have been secured. They have also spent a great deal of time working through possible issues but with anything that is changing, I am sure there will be things that arise that someone didn’t think of. We ask parents to please be sure to contact our office to let us know if they become aware of a potential issue of which we aren’t aware.
Finally, I know there will be questions as to why we are “changing” things at this point in the year. Please know that we don’t make these decisions lightly, but we make them to ensure that we can help all students achieve success. If you ask students what is the one thing we want for them, most will say “to be college and career ready” (some will even roll their eyes while doing it).
We must ensure that our middle school students enter high school with the literacy and math skills needed to become college and career ready, and we feel this is one strategy that we can implement to improve their chances.
Extracurricular Academic/Behavior Criteria
The SBDM Council also voted to amend this year’s 2015-2016 Student Handbook to include the following for all students:
Any student participating in any extracurricular activity must be passing five out of six classes in order to participate. Any student not passing five out of the six classes will be deemed academically ineligible to participate until grades have improved. Any student who is placed into ISS or receives out of school suspension will not be eligible to participate in extracurricular activities on campus or off campus during these time periods.