Middle School Option OKd for 6th-Graders

SIMI VALLEY —  Clearing room for smaller elementary classes while offering parents and students a smidgen of school choice, trustees decided Tuesday night to begin an optional middle school for sixth-graders in September.

Under the program, sixth-graders will have the choice of staying in their cozy neighborhood elementary school or moving on to the hustle-bustle realm of middle school.

Having this option means that parents get the best of both worlds, trustee Carla Kurachi said before the meeting.

“I don’t know how you can argue against choice,” she said before the 3-2 vote. “That’s what happens when you live in a democracy, isn’t it?”

Opening underutilized intermediate schools to sixth-graders was one of three options trustees considered to make room for smaller classes in the first through third grades.

Before making a decision, trustees heard from eight impassioned parents who were opposed to allowing sixth-graders to enter middle school. Parent Cheryl Burton also presented the five-member board with an anti-middle school petition signed by 679 parents.

“The choice option seems to be a political favorite,” said a skeptical Michael Murphy, the father of two. “But if middle school is right for our community, let’s openly talk about its educational superiority.”

Murphy--like other parents--said he was not convinced that sixth-graders would receive any educational benefits from attending middle school.

Board President Norm Walker and trustee Caesar O. Julian sided with the parents, but were outvoted.

The vote comes on the heels of a Simi Valley Unified School District survey--the results of which were released last week--that was sent home with 1,395 fifth-graders.

The majority of the 1,037 parents who responded to the poll said they would prefer to keep their children at their neighborhood elementary schools. But a significant minority--288 parents--said they would send their sixth-graders to the local middle school in September, if the option were available.

Spurred by the state’s $771-million incentive program, Simi Valley trustees have voted to trim primary grade classes to 20 or fewer students. With some space empty at middle schools, though, the school district was not eligible to receive any of the additional $200 million the state set aside for needed facilities.

To keep classes small in the first three grades, the school district needed an extra 16 to 20 classrooms by September, according to Dave Kanthak, assistant superintendent for business services.

To that end, trustees considered moving some sixth-graders to middle school at a cost of about $25,000.

It’s unclear precisely how much space the middle school option will create at elementary schools because fifth-grade parents won’t have to commit to middle or elementary school until spring.

Other options considered were buying 16 portable classrooms for an estimated $980,000 and reopening Arroyo Elementary at a cost of about $1.2 million.

Daniel Jenkins, the father of two, was pleased with the outcome of the meeting.

“This move is right for our kids,” he said. “If it makes sense and saves money too, that’s a bonus.”