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Home > Blogs > Springfield Schools News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > December > 16
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Greenon cancels evening activities
Greenon Local Schools has canceled all evening and afternoon events for Tuesday, Dec. 16, due to inclement weather.
From Assistant Superintendent Tammy Carnahan:
Effective immediately, ALL afternoon/evening activities are being cancelled at all schools within the Greenon Local District. This includes the band concert at GHS this evening, as well as any athletic practices that are in process. Parents with younger children who are currently at a school event, should report to the school to pick up their child right away or know that their older (driving/walking) child will be dismissed from events at this time. This is due to the icy conditions that are occurring at the present time.
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Lagonda principal heading to high school
Lagonda Elementary Principal Jeff Thompson will likely take over at Springfield High School for the remainder of the school year.
The board will vote today on a recommendation from Interim Superintendent Don Thompson to re-assign Jeff Thompson to the high school as interim campus director for the remainder of the school year.
The two are not related.
Jeff Thompson has several years of high school administration experience behind him, at London High School, most recently.
The board also will vote on interim principals for Lagonda (during Jeff Thompson’s absence) and Warder Park/Wayne elementary schools.
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Sixth grade: Elementary or middle schoolers?
Springfield could return, on some scale, to kindergarten through sixth grade elementary schools after several years of a K-5 structure under two proposals currently before the district facilities committee.
Many people in the committee meeting last night seemed to feel this would be a better structure; the real debate seemed to lie in whether to apply it to all buildings or just five of the 10 elementary schools to minimize the impact of possibly closing Clark Middle School and turning it into central office and a preschool center.
Middle schools have been a subject of debate for a couple years now. The New York Times produced a series on middle schools in 2007 that pretty well examines the issues.
The series argues that the middle school years are critical but it’s also a period when you see a slump in learning.
The state report cards for Ohio over the last two years back up that thought. In 2006-07, Ohio met 19 of 30 indicators. Five of the 11 missed indicators were in grades 6-8 and 3 were in fifth grade.
In 2007-08, Ohio met 18 of 30 standards; 4 of the 11 missed indicators were in grades 6-8 and 4 were in fifth grade.
Fifth and eighth grade were the big trouble spots. Both of those grades had new tests added in the last couple years and performance is typically low in the inaugural year of a new test.
In many of the the highly-rated suburban Ohio districts, the middle school years tend to be the few indicators they struggle with each year.
A few schools systems, particularly in the east, have closed middle schools, choosing either to keep students in elementary schools longer or enter students into high school earlier.
There’s quite a bit of research out there that backs up a plan to move sixth graders back to the elementary schools, said Interim Superintendent Don Thompson. He cited a recent Standford search that I’m not familiar with but if you’re interested, here’s a 2007 study out of Duke University that has similar findings.
Essentially, researchers found that sixth-graders at elementary schools perform better academically and have fewer disciplinary infractions than sixth-graders in middle school.
Disciplinary numbers in Ohio tend to be much higher in the middle grades than elementary or high school.
On the flip side, there are some that feel that being grouped with older students makes the younger students look forward to things like preparing for college earlier than they would in elementary school settings and gives them older role models to look up to.
At last night’s meeting one person called the switch to middle school a “rite of passage” that some city schools’ kids would miss out on if the plan were implemented in only half of the district.
Do you think sixth graders should be in the elementary school or at the middle schools?
[an error occurred while processing this directive]Read more schools news on our education blog.
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New SHS interim campus director to be named today
Springfield High School will find out today who its campus director will be for the remainder of the school year.
Superintendent Don Thompson said last week he would move quickly to get a new person in place after the board approved the resignation of JoEtta Cooper. Cooper’s resignation is effective Dec. 31, so she won’t return after the upcoming winter break.
The replacement would finish out the rest of the year. The district is in the midst of a search to find a permanent campus director and a new superintendent.
For more school news, read our education blog.
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