By Tina Comeau
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
Before the Tri-County Regional School Board decided to turn Maple Grove into a Grade 7-8 school and Yarmouth Junior High into a Grade 9 school, it did hear from a few people and groups suggesting this was an option the board should consider.
In fact this was an option the board had considered, and gathered input on, five years ago.
Although such a reconfiguration of the schools was not included as a recommendation in a recent school utilization report prepared for the board, some letters of feedback to the report encouraged the board to think along these lines.
“Instead of maintaining the two junior high schools in the Yarmouth area, students would be better served and resources better used if we were to create one Grade 7 and 8 junior high school at Maple Grove Education Centre,” wrote Ian White, chair of the Meadowfields Community School advisory council, on behalf of the SAC.
“This would put both early and late French immersion under one roof and provide all junior high school students with equal access to the fine art and music programs offered at Maple Grove. There would be considerable savings to the board in terms of being able to pool resources and the students would be better served because resources would not be stretched between two schools.”
People who favour the board’s decision say the reconfiguration of grades offers an opportunity to provide equitable programming for students from junior high through to high school. This can also remove the perception of a “have” school versus a “have not” school, particularly since all of these students do come together at the high school level. This way they can reach high school having shared in the same academic experience.
David Sollows, principal of Meadowfields Community School, touched upon this in a letter of input he submitted to the board. At Meadowfields students head in two different directions once their hit junior high with children living in the county going to Maple Grove, those in town going to Yarmouth Junior High – this after being together for their elementary schools.
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“More significant, perhaps, than the separation of friends at this point is the perception that enhanced opportunities exist for students at Maple Grove. The relatively larger population at Maple Grove has allowed a critical mass of students that will support specialist programming in a way that has not been possible at Yarmouth Junior High,” he wrote. “With the recommendation for placement of Grade 9 students in two separate schools where different programming will be inevitable because of staffing options, the perception of have and have not schools will probably be intensified.
“I would suggest that consideration should be given to the placement of all Grade 7 and 8 students at Maple Grove (including early and late French immersion students) and all Grade 9 students at the new high school. This would eliminate the perceived advantages/disadvantages of the present/proposed configuration because all students would have the same opportunities at attend the same schools,” he added. “It would also allow for staffing options that would more easily allow appropriate professional development for teaching staff, more effective targeting of resource and special needs students and a site specific way to address some of the academic achievement concerns that have been identified in provincial assessments.”
The idea of a Grade 7 and 8 middle school complex, at MGEC, is one Central Elementary School has raised in the past with the board. It referred to that suggestion once again in a letter the Central School SAC sent to the board. The SAC’s letter also promoted the idea of housing all early French immersion for students in one elementary school for the town and Meadowfields schools, that being a new P-6 elementary school, prior to possibly moving on to a middle school and then high school.
