Jefferson School to add fifth, sixth grades

Jefferson Elementary School will expand enrollment to include fifth- and sixth-graders over the next three years, a move school officials believe will serve students well.

All Cape Girardeau elementary schools now educate students in kindergarten through fourth grades.

But the school district plans to add fifth-grade students to its enrollment at Jefferson School for the 2020-2021 school year and sixth-grade students for the 2021-2022 year, said Christa Turner, deputy superintendent of elementary education.

Only those fifth- and sixth-graders enrolled in Jefferson will attend that school. The district’s other fifth and sixth graders will attend Central Middle School, Turner said.

Turner and Cape Girardeau School District superintendent Neil Glass said they believe students will benefit from remaining at Jefferson for two additional grades.

Turner said this would allow students to develop greater leadership skills and benefit from two more years of the new STREAM (Science, Technology, Research, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) curriculum.

Jefferson will fully implement the project-based curriculum starting with the new school year in August, she said.

Elementary school families throughout the district were notified by mail in December of the planned changes at Jefferson School.

Turner wrote Jefferson School students “will be immersed in holistic, hands-on learning that will empower them to reach their full learning potential.”

As part of the curriculum change at Jefferson School, the school district opened up enrollment to students in other parts of the city.

The open enrollment deadline is March 1.

As of Friday, about 20 students from outside the Jefferson School zone have enrolled in classes at the south-side school for the coming academic year, Turner said.

The bulk of those students are incoming kindergartners and those who are now in third grade, she said.

Turner said she believes the plan to expand Jefferson to include fifth and sixth grades was a factor with families of those 20 students.

Jefferson School has room for about 20 students per grade level in addition to those students who reside in that elementary school zone, she said.

“I really didn’t have expectations for the first year,” she said of the open enrollment.

With the additional students, Jefferson School would have an enrollment of about 280 this fall, Turner said.

Under the plan, the district will not provide bus transportation for those students attending Jefferson from outside that school zone. Families of those 20 students would have to provide transportation to and from the school, she said.

All of Cape Girardeau’s public elementary schools used to educate students through sixth grade. But in August 2002, the district opened the Central Middle School to serve fifth- and sixth-grade students districtwide.

Glass said the focus on Jefferson School is tied to efforts to revitalize the city’s struggling south-side neighborhood through use of the Purpose Built Community model that originated in Atlanta.

The district plans to construct a $1.5 million, centralized, prekindergarten center on the Jefferson campus, assuming voters approve a bond issue in April.

School officials also have applied for a grant to fund an early-learning program for children, birth through 3 years of age.

If the district secures that funding, Glass said that program also would have a place on the Jefferson campus.

As a result, the district could serve children from birth through sixth grade at that site, Glass said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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