MIDDLE SCHOOL ISSUE IS AT STAKE; VOTERS TO SAY IF CONCEPT WILL BE INSTITUTED

Voters in the Cape Girardeau School District are being asked to approve a $25 million bond issue to construct an elementary school and a middle school.

But it's more than a brick-and-mortar issue. Voters, in effect, will be deciding the fate of the "middle school" concept, a whole new approach to teaching young adolescents.

"The middle school is meant to be a philosophy that helps pre-adolescents in the transition years between the elementary environment and a high school environment," said Carolyn Vandeven, principal of L.J. Schultz School.

Schultz now serves as the seventh- grade school. If voters approve the plan, Schultz would be closed within two years and seventh-graders would attend the middle school.

Under the plan, the 1,200-student middle school which would be constructed on property at Bertling and Sprigg streets would house grades 6-8, and the junior high and high school would be combined into a single high school campus for grades 9-12.

Construction of a middle school would also free up space in the district's remaining elementary schools since sixth-graders would be moved to the new school.

While it may be a new concept locally, the middle school concept has been embraced by schools nationwide, said Superintendent Neyland Clark.

Vandeven echoed that point: "It is the most common configuration in the state and the nation."

Cape Girardeau is one of only 14 districts in the state that still educates sixth-graders in elementary schools.

Vandeven said she doesn't know of another school district in Missouri that operates a seventh-grade center as Cape Girardeau does.

Clark said 10- to 14-year-olds have "unique needs" intellectually, physically and socially. They undergo tremendous emotional and physical changes during this time of their lives.

"The middle school is not designed to make your sixth-grader older; It's designed to make your eighth-grader younger," he said.

Under the current arrangement, youngsters in the Cape Girardeau School District attend Schultz for one year. They then must adjust to a new school Cape Girardeau Central Junior High for eighth and ninth grades before moving on to the high school.

Vandeven said "it's not good" to put pre-adolescents through a lot of changes in terms of school buildings. These students are already having to deal with natural changes in their lives, she pointed out.

A middle school helps make for a smoother transition, she said. "It is just a transitional age. You need programs that are geared to the unique needs of adolescents."

The middle school concept can involve any combination of grades, ranging from fifth to ninth. But the most common configuration is ~sixth, seventh and eighth, said Vandeven.

Margie Theobald, an associate professor in the department of secondary education at Southeast Missouri State University, is a strong proponent of the middle school concept.

Theobald serves on the executive board of the Missouri Middle School Association. The association, founded in 1976, currently has nearly 1,000 members, including parents, administrators, teachers and counselors.

Cape Girardeau public schools used to be leaders in education in Missouri. "But in the last few years they have fallen behind the times," said Theobald, who began her teaching career in 1969 and has taught middle-school children. She has been employed at Southeast for 12 years now.

Establishment of a middle school, she maintained, will help bring the Cape school system "back into the spotlight."

A past president of the Missouri Middle School Association, Theobald said the middle school movement is widespread. There is a National Middle School Association, whose annual conference attracts 8,000 to 10,000 people, she said.

The middle school concept is an alternative to the more traditional junior high model. The latter dates back to 1910, said Theobald.

"Typically, a junior high school is a mini-high school," she explained. "The kids see eight teachers. They run from one corner of the building to the other, and class to class."

In contrast, a middle school involves smaller groups with teams of teachers.

"The core group of teachers, as a team, sees all the same kids," said Theobald. For example, a team of four teachers combined may deal with 80 to 100 students. The teachers have a common planning period so that their lesson plans complement one another.

Middle schools involve interdisciplinary teaching. "The English teacher can build on the math unit and the math teacher on the English unit," she explained.

"Then, those kids have that security of knowing that these core teachers really know them and care about them," said Theobald.

Vandeven said sixth-graders would have only a few teachers. In seventh grade, they would have more teachers and then still more in eighth grade as they prepare to move on to high school.

Vandeven said that while the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders would be in the same building, the three grade levels would essentially be kept apart.

"They will each have their own restrooms. They will each have their own lunch periods," she said.

As designed, the middle school would serve 400 students in each grade. The bottom level of the two-story school would house sixth-graders. Seventh- and eighth-grade classes would be separate from each other, but both would be housed on the top level of the school.

Theobald said the separation of the grade levels is an important part of the middle school concept. "It is another way of kind of easing them into a change without totally dropping them into the lake."

Many of Missouri's larger school districts have already adopted the middle school concept. School districts throughout the state are making the move to middle schools, she said.

"A lot of schools are keeping the title junior high, but are changing to a middle school," said Theobald. "Perryville Junior High School is now operating under a middle school philosophy."

Theobald volunteers her time to assist teachers at Schultz School. "The kids are crazy and the teachers are crazy, and we get along just fine," she laughingly said.

Theobald said Schultz School teachers she has talked with are excited about the possibility of a middle school. "If you are really a middle school person, you've got to be excited about it," she said.

Tuesday: A look at redistricting and school tax rates.