SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : District to Reclassify Junior High Schools

The Capistrano Unified School District last week unanimously voted to reclassify its junior high schools as middle schools.

The change, effective this fall, amounts to a renaming of the schools; there are no immediate plans to change the grade configurations at any of the campuses.

Under the new format, Marco F. Forster and Shorecliffs junior high schools will be called middle schools. In addition, Fred Newhart Elementary also will be designated as a middle school. A fourth school, Niguel Hills, had its name changed from that of a junior high school to middle school last spring.

“It’s a symbolic yet very real change,” Supt. James A. Fleming said. “Students of this age should not be attending a junior high school. The name sends a message to children as young as 11 years old that the experience is that of a mini-high school.”

The district’s action has concerned parents at Newhart, which is currently a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade campus.

Parents have told the district in recent weeks that they are concerned that the grade configuration of Newhart Elementary will be altered and that the younger children at the school will be sent elsewhere.

The middle-school concept is geared toward meeting the needs of students in the sixth-through-eighth grades, district officials said. Fleming said the district would schedule meetings for parents with children attending all of the district’s elementary schools, so the middle-school concept could be discussed.