Sixth grade is about to take its Toll

GLENDALE — More than 50 students will be the newest batch of “germs” at Toll Middle School in September, and they are proud of the nickname, 11-year-old Hyunseo Bae said.

“Yup, we’re the sixth-graders — we’re the germs,” the former Keppel Elementary School student said, explaining the nicknames for the different grades. The seventh-graders are called “scrubs” and eighth-graders are dubbed “toilet washers,” she said.

Toll Middle School — which is a seventh- and eighth-grade school with about 1,000 students — has for the past year been conducting a pilot program that allowed sixth-graders from nearby elementary schools to take classes there. The last day of the summer program was Thursday.

This school year, more than 50 students will be in Toll’s sixth grade. But starting in the 2008-09 school year, Toll will be a full-fledged sixth-through-eighth-grade middle school.

Hyunseo said being a trailblazer for her friends at Keppel Elementary School — which is next door to Toll — was one of the main reasons she signed up for the program. And she doesn’t feel bad leaving them behind, she said.

“They want to choose their life, and I want to choose my life,” Hyunseo said. “I think it’s a good thing, and I want to experience it before my friends.”

Students described the pros and cons of being the smallest, youngest and most inexperienced group on campus.

“I think it’s better,” said 11-year-old Karen Espino, also a former Keppel student. “You don’t have to stay in one classroom, and you see different things.”

At elementary school, students had one teacher for the entire day, Karen said, but Toll’s system of moving from class to class between periods is exciting.

Middle school also offers more clubs and activities than elementary school, she said, adding that being around older students has been a bit intimidating.

“Some of the eighth-graders are mean, and they’re scary sometimes,” she said.

But they don’t pick fights or hassle them, Karen said.

“They’re just so big and tall,” she said.

Karen also had one more criticism of the summer program.

“There’s only like 10 girls, so we need more girls,” she said.

Administrators at Glendale Unified School District and Toll Middle School said having sixth-grade students with the seventh- and eighth-graders gives them a better middle school experience.

“I think that it allows them an opportunity to transition more easily into middle school with that background,” English teacher Nancy Torres said.

Toll tested about 60 students in the 2006-07 school year with positive results, math teacher Fred Hajduk said.

“They know how to do everything without the nervousness and apprehension,” he said.

They also tested better academically, he said. The Toll sixth-graders of the 2006-07 school year scored higher in mathematics in a midyear test than the nearby elementary school sixth-graders or the middle schools that already have sixth-graders.

Roosevelt, Rosemont and Wilson middle schools have already transitioned to the sixth-through-eighth-grade system.

Toll will see an influx of more than 160 students once the campus switches to having a full class of sixth-graders in 2008, Toll Asst. Principal Lonny Root said.

In addition to Torres and Hajduk, who were hired for the summer pilot program, the middle school will probably hire two more teachers from one of the elementary schools, Root said.