New grade configurations prove vexing

By Dan MacArthur
North Forty News

Parents, the public and Poudre School District staff have started unraveling the knotty issues surrounding reconfiguring grade levels.

It's no simple task because each option presents its own problems and positives while affecting the lives of students and capacity of schools across the district.

Four options are under consideration including the status quo, which is K-6, 7-9 and 10-12. It's a safe bet that at least some configurations will change given the need to better balance enrollments, reduce dropout rates aggravated by the trauma of student transitions and provide more educational and extra-curricular opportunities for ninth graders,

Additionally, there's pressure on PSD to get in step with virtually every other Colorado school district providing a traditional K-6, 7-8 and 9-12 grade configuration. Two previous studies by PSD since 1990 recommended transitioning to that model as quickly as possible. But the space shortage resulting from the lack of funding for new schools prevented implementation.

There are fewer obstacles now with flat or declining enrollments the district expects to continue for the next five years. The disparity in high school enrollments create another difficulty, however, according to assistant superintendent of school services Ron Maulsby. Fort Collins and Fossil Ridge high schools are well under capacity, he said, while Rocky Mountain and Poudre are stuffed well beyond.

The other two options are the K-5, 6-8 and 9-12 model, and a hybrid model likely to consist of schools of various configurations, perhaps grouped around the neighborhood schools that feed students into the junior and senior high schools.

Whichever option is selected would be phased in no earlier than the 2008-2009 school year.

"Whether we make a change, PSD needs to do a better job with transition," Maulsby told those gathered for the first of four public information and input meetings at Fossil Ridge High School.

Other meetings are scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. March 1 at Rocky Mountain High School and March 7 at Poudre High School, where Spanish translation will be provided.

Beyond the complex implications PSD has detailed in-depth in a series of informational handouts, the grade configuration issue is further complicated by parents' and educators' beliefs about the most appropriate grouping based on students' physical development, maturity, social skills, educational needs and extracurricular interests.

"We just need to meet the students' needs no matter what plan it is," said former teacher and occasional substitute Donna Brown.

Scott Kramer, the parent of three children attending the Traut Core Knowledge Elementary School, advocated incorporating ninth graders into the high schools. "They just don't fit in junior high," he said. "They're pulled in two directions."

"They're already splitting," concurred Sigrid Petersen, whose three children attend Zach Elementary and Preston Junior High.

School board member Nancy Tellez said she witnessed a "huge difference" in ninth graders participating in high school sports. Ninth-graders now can play with the teams at the high schools they will attend.

"I'd like to see us do something different from switching them between two levels," Tellez said.

"I think you have to pick the model and go with it," said Jillian Harrison, with two children attending Linton Elementary.

The board of education will have the opportunity to do that in April when superintendent Jerry Wilson makes a recommendation, culminating the exhaustive grade reconfiguration study that started a year ago.