JACKSON TARGETS CROWDING

JACKSON - Class changes at R.O. Hawkins Junior High School in Jackson are not for the timid.

During these five-minute transitions, 900 students spill out into the hallways of this building designed to handle 500 pupils. Both teachers and students must be prepared to get bumped, jostled, pushed around, and maybe even knocked down if they're caught in the hallways during one of these class changes.

In order to relieve the overcrowding at the junior high school, and at the nearby West Lane Elementary School, the Jackson School District is hoping to build a $5.4 million middle school that would house the sixth and seventh grades.

School patrons will be asked to go to the polls April 6 to vote on a $4.7 million bond issue, which will require no increase in taxes.

Perhaps the best way to describe conditions that now exist at the junior high school is to let some of the students and faculty describe a typical school day at the school.

Rachel Casteel, a ninth grade student, said when the bell rings to end a class, "It's just a mad rush of kids everywhere. It's almost dangerous in the hallways. There are so many of us trying to get to our next classroom in five minutes."

Casteel said some students have been accidently stabbed by ball point pens and pencils as they move slowly along the crowded hallways. "By the end of the day, you have ink spots on your sleeves or arms," she said.

Alisha Liley, an eighth grade student, said if you drop a book or something on the floor, your only hope is to try to kick it to the wall and wait for the mass of students to pass by. "If you bend down to pick it up you'll probably get knocked over," she said. "When you walk in the hallways at classroom change, you're walking back-to-back with people in front and behind you."

Josh Lukefahr, who is also in the eighth grade, is tall for his age. That helps him stand a little higher so he can see above the crowd as it moves like a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam.

"It's just chaos. People are trying to walk along the hallway and running into students who have their locker doors open to get books and other things," Lukefahr said.

Daniel Mackey, a seventh grader, said it's a real challenge. "You just have to go with the flow, and hope you can get out of the hallway when you get to your next room," Mackey said. "If you forget to pick up something at your locker, it's too late. You'll never have time to fight your way back to your locker and get back to class before the tardy bell rings."

In a half-joking and half-serious manner, the four junior high school students agreed that quick reflexes are needed to stay out of harm's way during classroom changes. They describe the class change from fifth to sixth hour (1:15-1:20 p.m. as near gridlock, when everything slows to a turtle's pace at a critical four-way junction of two hallways.

The students point out if the school was suddenly forced to evacuate during a class room change, it could be a threat to the safety and well-being of smaller and younger students.

For those who teach at Hawkins Junior High, the challenges and frustrations are just as great as those of the students.

Ellen Lukens, who teaches seventh and eighth grade English, is one of the school's "bag ladies." At the end of each hour, she gathers up her teaching and classroom materials, loads them on her cart and pushes her mobile classroom cart down the hallway to the next room. That's because like most teachers at Hawkins, she does not have a "home room."

"I feel like a turtle because I carry my house with me. And sometimes I have to go at the pace of a turtle because of the crowded hallways," she quipped. "There is so much congestion and so little time to get from one room to the next, that I don't even have time to stop by the restroom."

Teachers say this daily routine limits how much time they can spend with their students. Rhonda Heaton, who teaches art and English, is another "bag lady." She said traveling from one room to another means she does not have the all the classroom teaching aids at hand. "Its so much harder to stay organized when you're pushing a mobile classroom cart from room to room. It cuts down on my productivity and that of the students. Fortunately, all of us have learned to adjust to the problems to some extent," she said. "Some of my students offer to push the cart for me."

Because of the overcrowded conditions, Hawkins Junior High School can no longer hold all-school assemblies. School officials say the gym will not safely hold the entire student body. If there is a school-wide program, it is held in two sessions.

Scott Van Gilder, band teacher, said when he first came to Hawkins, only four minutes was needed to pass from one class to another. "Now they have had to add another minute. To compensate for the extra minutes, the school day was extended by 10 minutes," he explained.

At West Lane Elementary School, the major problem is lack of classroom space, said Principal Stan Smee.

He said some rooms for students with learning disabilities are located near the gym. "So you have the kids with the greatest need for help near the most noise," Smee said. "We have had to create a special education room in one end of a 12-foot corridor in the east end of the building because there is no other classroom space available.

Smee is also concerned because there is no space to secure expensive microscopes, VCRs, television sets, and computer terminals when the school day is over. "They're just left in the open classrooms. We've had a lot of loss and breakage because the school is used by the public when classes are not in session," he explained.

Gene Galnore said the crowded classrooms at West Lane make it difficult for students to learn and teachers to teach because they are so close together.

He said West Lane students must also wait in line and eat their lunch in only 20 minutes. "It's a real struggle for the last ones in line, so we give them some extra time, and give them a tardy slip to get into class," he said.

All of this has come about because the Jackson School District has become the victim of its own reputation as an excellent school district, according to Superintendent Wayne Maupin.

"The Jackson School District is experiencing growth each year because of its reputation for academic excellence, which in turn attracts more and more families with school-age children to the district," Maupin said. "Right now, our student population in the district is around 3,600. By the end of this decade, it is projected to go over 4,000, according to a study that was conducted several years ago by the University of Missouri.

"And I would point out that so far, the study has not only been on target, but during the past three years, actual enrollment in our district has exceeded those projections."

Maupin said the school board and administration has been concerned about the current and projected growth pattern for several years. The district constructed Orchard Elementary School several years ago to relieve overcrowded classes at the elementary level. Now it must contend with the serious overcrowding situation at the junior high school and West Lane Elementary, which will only get worse as enrollment continue to increase each year, according to Maupin.

The district created a 14-member citizens committee last year to see what options were available. The options included moving the ninth grade to the senior high school campus, and expanding both the junior high and West Lane buildings. None of these options were considered viable, either for the short-term or long-term. Instead, the committee recommended a middle school be built that would house the sixth and seventh grades.

Maupin said a middle school would solve two problems. First, it would remove about 300 seventh grade students from the junior high school, which in turn would reduce the student population at the school to around 600. By moving the 230 sixth grade students from West Lane, the school population there would drop back to around 350, and allow for expected increases in school enrollment between now and the end of the decade.

In addition, Maupin said the middle school will provide a transition or buffer for elementary students who now go directly into junior high school.

"What we have right now is a situation where former sixth grade elementary students are entering seventh grade at the junior high level. These seventh graders are mixed in with the older eighth and ninth grade students.

"It's a real culture and social shock for these new seventh graders. It's difficult for them to adjust to the different routine of junior high school," he said. "A middle school would allow the seventh graders to make a more gradual adjustment from elementary school, and that would have a positive impact on their academic work."