EDUCATION

District begins moving sixth grade to middle schools

John Hill
jhill@providencejournal.com

WARWICK, R.I. — After years of public forums and agonized deliberations, the school district has begun the formal process of moving of its sixth-graders from the elementary schools to two sixth-seventh-eighth-grade middle schools for the 2018-19 school year.

Principals from the Winman and Veterans Middle schools have been meeting with fifth- and sixth-grade students to talk about the move, school officials said. Parent orientation nights are expected to be held at each of the middle schools in March, with students touring their new schools in June and attending more involved orientations in August.

The middle school plan calls for moving about 600 sixth-graders from elementary schools across the city into either the Winman Middle School or Veterans Middle School, a converted high school.

About 360 sixth-grade students will be moved to Veterans and about 230 to Winman. Secondary Education Director Robert Littlefield said the transition for the move means double duty for the schools’ staffs. Not only are the students who are in sixth grade now be heading to seventh grade at Vets and Winman, this year’s fifth-graders, next fall’s sixth-graders, will be making the move as well.

Besides finding classroom space for what constitutes nearly 50 percent enrollment increases at each of the schools, Littlefield said administrators had to add more mundane, but no-less-important items, such as cafeteria space and lockers. Littlefield said the most cafeteria work was needed at Vets, where a music/meeting room has been added to the cafeteria area. Ironically, Littlefield said, a year ago that room had originally been part of the cafeteria before being converted for music and meetings.

Administrators are working on four-shift lunch schedules that they hope will enable them to have the six-graders eat together at the same time, he said.

Warwick is one of the last school districts in the state to move to an elementary school-middle school-high school model, where grades six, seven and eight are in a middle school.

Littlefield said the plan had been in the works for several years, but high school and junior high school consolidations had to be finished first.

The idea behind a middle school configuration is that six-graders, rather than having the same teacher for all subjects, are exposed to more specialized subject teachers and increased offerings for athletic and extracurricular activities. The arrangement also allows them to be exposed to more diverse class selections sooner in their education.

— jhill@providencejournal.com

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