Wv Middle School Takes Nontraditional Approach

West Valley School District will open a new middle school this September, with twin emphases on technology and accommodating students who aren’t blossoming in a traditional classroom.

The school will accept fifth-through eighth-graders. Starting enrollment may be only 50 students, said West Valley Superintendent Dave Smith. But he expects enrollment to reach 100 students by the end of the program’s first year, and 150 the September after that.

The new school’s principal will be Larry Bush, currently principal at Pasadena Park Elementary School.

“A traditional school has a set program. This school will fit into the child,” Bush said. “We see kids like that all the time, who are really bright but do not fit into a traditional model.”

Why start with fifth grade?

“By fifth grade, those kids are making a choice: ‘Are you going to go to school (through high school) or not?”’ Bush said.

No site has been chosen for the program, but Smith said it will be in a leased building within the district. No teachers have been chosen either.

Enrollment in the school will be voluntary. The district also will look for West Valley teachers who want to join the new program.

Although the program sounds like an alternative school, Bush shies away from that label.

“Instead I like to say that we’re providing opportunities for kids,” he said. “The academic standards will be tremendous.” He envisions offering foreign language through a satellite broadcast program, and developing a sports program that will be more recreational than at a tradition school.

Bush and Smith agree that it will take five years to fully develop the new school.

West Valley will hire a new principal for Pasadena Park. Bush has been principal there for six years.

Other changes in the district include these:

Fred Traher, principal at Orchard Center Elementary, will become the district’s technology director.

The district will expand its technical program for high school students, giving them skills that can help in the job force, as well as offering those students jobs maintaining the district’s computer.

Traher has held his job at Orchard Center for six years.

Gene Simenti, who has been assistant principal at Centennial Middle School for five years, will become principal at Orchard Center.

The change in duties come partly because these individuals wanted broader opportunities, the superintendent said.

“If we didn’t make these changes, we were going to lose these people” to jobs elsewhere, Smith said.