Parents opposed to the school district’s new grade level reconfiguration, namely moving sixth grade into the middle school sites, are not going gently into that good night as witnessed at the Sept. 15 school board meeting.
Resident Laura Hernandez, parent of three children in the Morgan Hill Unified School District including a fifth grader who will be part of the first crop of sixth graders sent to middle school, expressed her frustration with the board’s Aug. 4 decision.
“My main two points of frustration are lack of communication and the timing of this change,” Hernandez told the board Sept. 15. “It appears to many parents that this change is being rushed….There seems to be a sense of urgency from the board to cram this in in the next 12 months.”
The Board of Education voted 4-3 in favor of the new grade level reconfiguration last month, despite pleas from about a dozen parents of elementary school children who spoke up prior to the Aug. 4 meeting. The district’s grade level reconfiguration committee—comprised of administrators, teachers and parents who debated and researched the topic over several months—recommended the K-5 elementary, 6-8 middle school, 9-12 high school configuration. This configuration is used at most of the county’s other school districts.
Board President Bob Benevento said academic content changes, labs and better facilities at the middle schools, financial implications, overcrowding at the elementary schools and staffing issues as well as the district staff recommendation factored into him voting in favor of the move. Trustees Ron Woolf, Donna Ruebusch and Amy Porter Jensen voted in support, while Trustees David Gerard, Gino Borgioli and Rick Badillo opposed it.
As part of the move, all Morgan Hill Unified elementary schools—with the exception of the kindergarten through eighth grade focus academies at Jackson and San Martin—will stop at fifth grade. The two middle schools, Britton and Martin Murphy, will serve grades 6-8 beginning in the 2016-17 school year.
“If it’s a space and facilities issue…then please be up front instead of trying to make up reasons why this move is best for our kids,” Hernandez continued. “We’re concerned that a quality sixth-grade experience will not be able to be crafted in the time given to Glen Webb and staff.”
Webb, a veteran administrator who was promoted to the MHUSD Director of Curriculum & Instruction earlier this year, has been tasked with devising the educational plan for sixth graders in middle school next year.
“The truth is that our sixth graders are going to have a wonderful program and our middle schools will enjoy a much better and supportive format to prepare students for high school than we have ever had before,” Webb said.
Webb, who believes one year is plenty of time to construct a sixth-grade program, hosted a pair of parent input meetings on the grade level reconfiguration earlier this month with close to 200 attendees. Parent comments from those meetings were transcribed and can be viewed on the district website, mhu.k12.ca.us.
“I am thankful to the many parents who have participated and offered constructive input,” said Webb, noting that discussions included the number of sixth-grade classes in a day and where sixth graders will be placed around campus. “The next step is to craft what the (typical) day will look like.”
Student Ryan Thibault, a fifth grader at Nordstrom Elementary School, told the board Sept. 15 that he didn’t like the change because it will split up his friends to different schools. He also worried about bullying on the school bus from older students.
“I was taught if you wanted to make something happen, that you should have a plan so you can succeed,” Thibault said. “How come you don’t have a plan when you voted sixth grade to middle school? Where’s your plan to succeed? You did it backwards.”
Hernandez asked for more of an explanation from the board and district staff to support such a “monumental shift” and asked why it has to happen by next school year.
Webb said the reconfiguration coincides with program needs since the district must adopt new English and math materials for the Common Core State Standards as well as for the Next Generation Science Standards.
“Adoptions, professional development and implementations will be much stronger if they coincide with moving now rather than be interrupted by delayed grade level reconfiguration,” Webb said. “As a bonus, the district will also now be able to move ahead with class size reduction at third grade next year. So, the real question is, ‘why wait?’”
Some parents have taken their oppositional fight a step further, serving Benevento with a recall notice last week in an attempt to remove him from the board since the reconfiguration was approved under his leadership.
