Article Contributed on: 9/23/2009 10:55:40 AM
DCSD considers adding sixth-graders to two middle schools
The Douglas County School District is considering adding sixth-graders to two middle schools in Parker to help ease overcrowded elementaries.
The change to a 6-7-8 configuration would affect Sagewood Middle School, the Ponderosa High School feeder, and Cimarron Middle School, the Legend High School feeder.
Cimarron is currently housed in Legend High School and will open its own building next fall.
Moving sixth-graders to Sagewood would allow for the elementary schools that are on four-track calendars to return to a traditional or modified calendars, according to DCSD.
Moving sixth-graders to Cimarron Middle School would relieve capacity pressures in the current elementary schools, three of which are already on four-track calendars.
Four-track calendars help accommodate more students by rotating tracks of students through a year-round schedule. Groups of students attend school at different times with different vacations.
Rocky Heights Middle School in Highlands Ranch is the only Douglas County middle school that currently houses sixth- through eighth-graders.
Cimarron principal Karen Tarbell said during a parent meeting last week that sixth-graders will be kept separate from the upper grades as much as possible
The sixth-graders "will not be with seventh- or eighth-graders except if it is their benefit to be so," she said, adding that combined activities such as band and theater have worked out well at Legend.
Interim superintendent Steve Herzog told parents that even if money to build another elementary school were available, there are no elementary sites available in the Legend feeder area with access to water.
"The options aren't very pleasant not to do this," Herzog said. "So far, the feedback has been pretty high that parents want to do this."
Community feedback from recent meetings will be considered by the the long-range planning committee, a citizen-based committee of the Board of Education. The committee will made a recommendation to the board, which will make the final decision. Changes would take effect next fall.
Dana Pease, parent of current fifth-grader Sydney, said the talk about the change is creating an excited buzz in the fifth-grade classrooms.
"I think it will be really fun, and my friends think so, too," Sydney said.
Pease said one concern she has is if fifth-graders will be prepared for the transition to middle school. She said sixth-grade teachers prepare students by constantly reminding them about the things that will be different in middle school.
"That is not a dialogue that fifth-grade teachers have right now," she said.
Erin Feese: 303-954-2953 or feesee@yourhub.com