SNOHOMISH — The school board has scattered opinions on whether moving sixth grade up to middle school starting in fall 2025 is right, and whether this is the right move right now.
Two hesitancies that board members such as Shaunna Ballas and Rob Serviss have are that the plan puts students at Centennial Middle School into portables, and that shifting sixth grade in fall 2025 would have the change affect the students who entered first grade during the coronavirus pandemic in fall 2020. They are today’s fourth graders.
“What stands out is the lack of equity we will have for space at Centennial” versus Valley View, Ballas said. Expanding Centennial could rise to be “the
No. 1 thing that needs to go on a bond” for the district’s needs and she said that seems unfair when elementary schools have capital improvement needs.
Serviss said, for him, “a concern that resonated most is ‘not this fourth grade class.’ It’s timing.”
Board member Jay Hagen stated the only clear-cut position on what he thought at last week’s board meeting.
“I’m 100% for it,” Hagen said.
Why? Moving to sixth grade to middle school gives students “a wealth of opportunities” to give sixth graders a much larger menu of elective activities they don’t have as elementary schoolers. “If you keep kids engaged, you keep kids in school,” Hagen said.
This year’s board president Josh Seek said he can see some positives, but the space issues at Centennial concerns him. “Before moving forward, we need more concrete answers about Centennial,” Seek said.
Board member Sherri Larkin said she has more questions to consider before sharing a decision.
The school board is scheduled to vote on Wednesday, Feb. 28.
Superintendent Kent Kultgen said he intends to place possibly two recommendations to the board Feb. 28 based on what he is hearing.
He said he’s heard views both for and against the proposal, and heard concerns about Centennial not having space for the whole sixth grade to move in.
Centennial would add 300 to 325 sixth graders in the plan, making the student population near 1,100 students. The plan requires adding three or four portables to fit all the students.
Valley View has enough room to add sixth grade classes. There is enough room inside Valley View to accommodate adding about 300 sixth graders to be near 925 students in the school, district officials said, plus room to add 200 more students overall as the population grows.
“It could be this is not the right time to reconfigure,” Kultgen said.
In the end, he will be happy that there was a conversation about the middle school proposal, he said.
Kultgen asked board members to share their viewpoints during the Feb. 14 meeting.
One dozen parents and community members gave statements against the proposal at last week’s board meeting. Among those who have spoken against are some parent volunteers who lead some of the district’s elementary school parent-teacher organizations, such as in Totem Falls Elementary.
Others have given support.
The thoughts behind the idea is students will get a broader school experience and bond with fellow middle schoolers earlier as the same kids would ultimately be in high school together.
A focal concern to parents ties to prolonging the childhood innocence of 11-year-olds, and maintaining 1-on-1 care by teachers.
In an elementary school, a child is one of 30 and teachers know their students by name and are aware of any needs they have, one parent said. In a middle school, they are one of 140.
A few parents said that if the goal is to give sixth graders more electives and opportunities for a broader education, the district could put efforts to bolster its elementary schools instead of placing sixth graders among older students.
Another repeated concern is protecting 11-year-olds from being exposed to more bawdy or vulgar content by older middle schoolers. Middle schoolers can use cell phones at lunchtime, and some have shared bus rides with high schoolers.
The Snohomish teacher’s union does not have a formal opinion.
“This is the district’s decision — specifically it is the school board’s decision,” union president Justin Fox-Bailey said earlier this month.
If a switch is authorized, today’s sixth-grade elementary teachers are already certified to teach sixth grade in a middle school. Certifications are tied to a grade level, not the school’s format.
