THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 7, 1996 TAG: 9603050100
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
Two elementary school principals want to expand their schools to include grades six through eight, arguing that they can provide a more nurturing environment during a time of tumultuous changes in children's lives.
Bowling Park, one of the city's 10 mostly-black community schools, and Ghent, a ``choice'' school open to elementary students citywide, requested the change at last month's School Board meeting.
The board, which had mixed reactions, said they wanted to hear more from parents.
Including middle school grades at elementary schools would mark a major departure from existing practice, Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr. said. Currently, elementary schools include grades kindergarten through five.
Bowling Park Principal Herman D. Clark Jr. and Ghent Principal Julia Kidwell have proposed phasing in one grade each year for the next three years, beginning with sixth grade in the fall.
Clark said his proposal might reduce fights and other discipline problems that have erupted after students at Bowling Park and nearby Roberts Park Elementary are thrown together in middle school. Neighborhood rivalries between the two areas often have spilled over into Azalea Gardens Middle, which receives most of Bowling Park and Roberts Park students.
``Parents often feel intimidated by a new and larger setting at the middle school,'' Clark wrote in a memo to school administrators. ``We are confident they will continue to support their children and Bowling Park, since a relationship has already been nurtured.''
They cited research showing that the transition from elementary to middle school often results in a setback for children in behavior, academics and attitude. For many, middle school is a jolt, throwing them into a large, impersonal setting at a time of great change for them physically, emotionally and socially, they said.
``We feel that by keeping our boys and girls at Bowling Park, we can better handle their academic environment,'' Clark told the board. ``It seems that during the transition they are losing something.''
The principals said parents support their proposal.
``Parents are constantly asking us, `Why don't we go to K through 8?' '' Kidwell said.
Kidwell said the idea fits the superintendent's philosophy of providing parents and students with more school choices.
Of 84 parents who attended a recent meeting, 74 said they would keep their children at Ghent during their middle school years.
``Many parents, both before and after acceptance at Ghent, express deep concern about their children entering middle school,'' Kidwell wrote in a Feb. 9 memo to Nichols. ``They often plan and execute a private school move to avoid public middle school. Unfortunately, they may remain in the private school rather than returning to public high school as initially planned or some even relocate to another city.''
Clark said teachers from his school have visited K-8 elementary schools in Baltimore and Pleasantville, N.J. He provided data from Baltimore showing that students at the K-8 schools performed better in reading, math, science, writing and social studies than students citywide.
Board members had mixed feelings about the idea. Member Robert F. Williams said he favors the idea because he said he likes ``small schools where nurturing goes on.''
Board Chairman Ulysses Turner questioned further racially isolating black students at Bowling Park, whose student body is nearly 100 percent African American. The School Board in 1986 created the predominantly black ``community'' schools when it stopped busing for racial integration in elementary schools.
``The community schools concept was very controversial,'' Turner, who is black, told Clark. ``We promised that we would not promote the community schools concept at the middle school level. How are you prepared to address that?''
Clark said he had talked to the principal at nearby Booker T. Washington High School about providing ``interactive programs'' with the older students, including white students, so that Bowling Park students would have social interaction with white students. Clark said his idea was to give parents who objected to the K-8 concept the option of sending their children to a middle school.
Board member Anita Poston worried about grouping children with such a range of age differences in the same school.
Board member James Herndon voiced skepticism about allowing the experimentation.
``I'm a firm believer that we ought to figure out what works and do it, and not have 35 schools doing 35 different things,'' Herndon said, referring to the city's 35 elementary schools. ``If there are other issues here, we ought to deal with those issues.''
Kidwell said the cost to expand at her school would be relatively inexpensive - about $35,000 over the three years, primarily in textbooks and equipment.
Clark projected significantly higher costs at Bowling Park during the three-year period - about $286,000 to add teachers and support staff and $150,000 to add five mobile classrooms. Adding an annex unit rather than using portable classes would cost $250,000, he estimated. by CNB