District to Consider Option for 6th-Graders

Interested in giving sixth-graders the opportunity for a broader curriculum, Pleasant Valley School District officials are considering a plan to allow the students to enroll in middle school.

Nearly four years after a parent survey showed mixed reaction to the concept, trustees are hosting two town hall meetings Tuesday to gauge support for the proposal.

School board members are leaning toward a voluntary program that would allow parents and students to choose between elementary and middle school.

If such a proposal were adopted, the 7,100-student, Camarillo-area district would be following in the footsteps of other county school districts, such as Conejo Valley Unified, where 288 of the sixth-graders attend middle schools this year. Simi Valley Unified board members recently voted to offer a voluntary program in the fall.

Other districts such as Ventura Unified and Moorpark Unified have adopted middle-school programs that are mandatory for sixth-graders.

“This [middle-school program] is very popular throughout the state,” Pleasant Valley Trustee Dolores Rains said. “If you want my opinion, we are way behind on this.”

Supporters of middle schools argue that sixth-graders have access to more course offerings and teaching styles when grouped with older students.

Pragmatically, the move would also clear more room at the elementary level to reduce class sizes to 20 or fewer students.

Detractors, though, say sixth-graders are better off spending a year as the oldest students in the more protected elementary school environment, where they remain with one teacher all day.

School board members urge parents to attend one of the two meetings Tuesday when district officials will give more details about the proposal and distribute surveys to gauge the level of support.

“The town hall meeting is very important because parents need to learn what the program is about,” Trustee Jan McDonald said. “The program is going to be gauged on where the support is. So if we have a lot who want it, it’s going to be a larger program; if there is a small group, it will be smaller.”

Trustees will gather the parent surveys, and expect to make a decision about the subject during their Thursday board meeting. They will hold another informational session Feb. 25.

During the late 1980s, after the district formed its own task force to study the middle-school idea, parents expressed reluctance toward implementing the program, trustees said.

In April 1993, the district again surveyed parents but this time got mixed results.

When asked whether parents would favor their sixth-grade children participating in a middle-school program in the present or future, 55% of the 1,100 parents surveyed said yes, 45% said no.

Some parents rejected the proposed program, whether voluntary or involuntary, saying it wasn’t good to prematurely send kids off to the fast-paced world of middle school, said Robert Rexford, a former trustee who ended his term in November.

“It’s all about pushing your kids or not pushing your kids, and some people don’t believe [sixth-graders] are ready,” Rexford said. “I would have voted no.”

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Recounting his own experience, Rexford said: “It’s something like growing up too soon. I believe that sixth grade was the most important year of my life. You’re facing adolescence and issues of importance, and to be kind of like the senior citizen of the grammar school and like the top dog, it was a good feeling and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”

At a middle school, sixth-graders who are trying to develop their identity and confidence are suddenly relegated to being at the bottom of the pecking order, he added.

At the same time, supporters point to studies that say sixth-graders perform better in middle-school settings.

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“Developmentally, students in sixth, seventh and eighth grades have more in common--physically, psychologically, sociologically and intellectually,” Rains said.

“By having the children for three years on the same campus, it allows them to have a marvelous articulated program . . . a consistent program that strengthens their ability to go to high school.”

Pleasant Valley campuses such as Los Primeros, a kindergarten through eighth-grade school, already group the curriculum for sixth- through eighth-graders. Trustees may consider doing the same for Las Colinas, a fourth- through eighth-grade school that now groups seventh- and eighth-graders.

If the idea of a voluntary middle-school concept passes, as many as 550 current fifth-graders could have to make a choice next fall. District officials hope that about 240 of those students would enroll, half at one intermediate school, and half at the other, Assistant Supt. Stephen Hanke said.

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The district anticipates that a middle-school program may cost between $18,000 and $50,000 for several leased or purchased portables, as well $18,000 to $28,000 to purchase instructional materials and relocate the teachers.

While sixth-grade students who leave for middle school next fall would free up more room to implement the program to reduce class sizes at elementary schools, trustees said the main reason for considering the program is to give students access to a different curriculum.

“I think we have to make it really clear that class-size reduction doesn’t depend on the middle school,” Trustee Jan McDonald said.

“We will go ahead with implementing third grade [class-size reduction] next year.”

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Middle School for Sixth-Graders

The Pleasant Valley School District will hold informational meetings about the concept of sending some sixth-graders to middle school before and after the school board votes on the matter Thursday night.

* Tuesday:

3:30-5 p.m. at Camarillo Heights School, 35 Catalina Drive.

7-8:30 p.m. at El Rancho Structured School, 550 Temple Ave.

* Feb. 25:

3:30-5 p.m., El Descanso School, 1099 N. Bedford St.

7-8:30 p.m., Dos Caminos School, 3635 Appian Way.

A presentation made to school trustees earlier this month about the middle-school program will be broadcast on Channel 6 (western Camarillo) or Channel 10 (eastern Camarillo) today at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.