By Kristi Maxwell
Parents and teachers packed the cafeteria at Cottonwood Elementary on May 6 for the Emery County School Board meeting to voice their opinions regarding the possibility of ninth grade moving to the high school.
As a spokesperson for some of the parents assembled, Thomas Sitterud pushed for moving the ninth graders to the high school. The group he represented felt it would benefit the ninth graders due to the advantages of honor classes, more electives and the various clubs and organizations available at the high school level that are not present at a junior high level. Sitterud also brought up the issue of the ninth grade students participating in high school sports and the fact that it has created a separation between many of the ninth grade students. This is an issue the school board has addressed in past meetings and the board has been developing a plan to solve the problem without moving the ninth graders.
Board president Laurel Johansen explained to Sitterud and those in attendance that the board appreciated the information and said that it is something it will consider. She went on to explain that it is going to take some time and that it is not going to rush into a decision. She also stated that she had received several calls from people with different opinions and opened the discussion up to the floor.
One parent voiced her concerns and stated that before any decisions are made, people need to educate themselves on this issue because once the move is made it will be difficult to go back. She also said that there are many schools in the United States that would like to see ninth graders out of high schools due to increased disciplinary problems with ninth graders, the desire for smaller schools and other issues. She didn’t state that she was for or against the possible move but thought that it was really hasty to jump to this conclusion. “We have to look at what’s best for the entire community, not a small group of students,” the parent said.
Another parent voiced concerns over the possibility of sixth grade students moving to a middle school/junior high if the ninth grade is moved to the high school. She didn’t feel that the sixth graders have the maturity for the middle school environment. Some studies show that sixth graders in elementary school test higher than those in middle school and are less likely to have discipline problems. This is why there is a recent push in the United States to move the sixth graders back down to elementary. Other parents were concerned about increasing the school size by adding ninth grade to the high school.
One of the main reasons for the Carbon County School District’s decision to move the ninth graders to high school and the sixth graders to junior high school was that the district did not have room for the influx of students in the district’s elementary schools. The Carbon County School District was faced with the possibility of having to build another elementary. The Emery County School District is in the opposite situation. It has more than adequate elementary school facilities and some were afraid of the possibility that moving the ninth grade students to the high school might result in the closure of an elementary school or might increase expenses for the school district. These financial considerations could largely impact this discussion in the future.
President Johansen replied that it isn’t something that they will just run with because Carbon County School District did. She explained that there are issues to consider such as the endorsements required for teachers to teach on a secondary level.
Superintendent Kirk Sitterud explained that there are issues regarding licensing and endorsing of teachers and that teachers are required to have a major and a minor in the content they teach. Some ninth grade teachers would need to be moved to the high school if the ninth grade moves. Those teachers may not have the endorsements required to be eligible to teach the needed classes. The same is true of sixth grade teachers moving to a middle school. Some of these teachers may not be willing or able to teach the needed classes.
Sitterud stated that what the school board would like to do is study the issues, including staffing problems, resource issues, transportation issues, financial considerations, course offerings, impacts it will have on extracurricular activities and impacts to the elementary schools. “We want to be able to be prepared so that when and if we make that transition that it can be done and no one suffers because of it and that we can still provide a quality education for our kids,” Sitterud said. “We have some of the greatest teachers in the whole United States that teach right here in this school district. We have veterans that are great and we have a lot of new young teachers that have just given us real spark in our school district. This week is teacher appreciation week. Teachers, we appreciate you.”
