Reshaping East Valley
Education models discussed to stem dropout rate, spur learning
The East Valley School Board met again Wednesday to discuss sweeping changes in the way the district’s students learn. Members of the board and the community have been discussing ways to lower the district’s dropout rate and encourage a culture of learning.
At its workshop last month, the board discussed whether to have elementary schools serving students from prekindergarten through the eighth grade with a middle school learning center, or if they should have schools serving prekindergarten through the third grade and schools serving students from the fourth through the eighth grade.
The board agreed to take a look at the costs of each project before any decision was made.
Those figures aren’t in just yet, but Superintendent John Glenewinkel said he estimates the cost to be around $33 million for the prekindergarten- through-eighth-grade plan. Existing schools would need to get new locker rooms, a gym and six to eight new classrooms for the plan.
Glenewinkel said he plans to have the cost estimates for the board on both plans at the next workshop.
Wednesday’s meeting included a discussion about feedback the board members have received from the community.
“People did not want change,” Roger Trainor, the board’s chairman, said of the people with whom he has spoken. “Most people are afraid of change.” He did add that many people did, however, like the idea of a prekindergarten-through- eighth-grade school.
Boardmember Heidi Gillingham said she heard from one mother who was concerned about kindergarten students on the bus with eighth graders. She said the board has discussed keeping the students in separate wings of the schools, but not on the buses.
“I think that’s a very valid point,” she said.
The board discussed different options about busing such as segregating the buses by age – from the emergency door forward would be the younger students with the older students in back, or assigning older students to act as bus monitors.
Gillingham said she talked to one teacher who liked the idea of teachers in a prekindergarten-through- eighth-grade school collaborating with each other, so the students can get an idea of where they will be heading academically.
“I thought that was good feedback,” she said.
She also talked with one mother who said she and her children really enjoyed their experiences at the elementary school level, but middle school was a culture shock. The parent said she often received feedback from the teachers at the elementary school and she felt like the school was a community that gathered around the children to help. It was a whole different atmosphere at the middle school, and the mother said she felt she wasn’t able to communicate as well with the instructors.
Kerri Lundstroth, another board member, said she had been rethinking studies done that said transitions from one school to another were detrimental to student learning.
“I look at transitions, (they) can be a positive thing,” Lundstroth said, noting that in life, many people switch jobs more than in the past and transitions happen all the time. She felt transitions in the schools could be a way to prepare them for later.
As this meeting was a workshop, no further decisions have been made. The next workshop to discuss re-visioning will be Wednesday at 5 p.m. in the boardroom of the district office, 12325 E. Grace Ave.