Pittsfield Aims to Restore Electives in Middle School Restructuring
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Students will see enhanced electives as part of the middle school restructuring process.
Interim Superintendent Latifah Phillips updated the School Committee on the restructuring timeline last week.
Late last year, the former committee voted to restructure Pittsfield's two middle schools in the fall, with Grades 5 and 6 attending Herberg Middle School and Grades 7 and 8 attending Reid Middle School.
Staff packing will be completed by June 26, and in the first week of July, classrooms will be relocated. Classroom materials will be delivered by July 10, and teachers will be notified when they can access classrooms once summer cleaning is completed.
"In [grades] five to six, we're keeping the fifth grade structure of departmentalized two teacher teams, but the sixth grade is keeping its structure of I believe five teacher teams," Phillips said.
"That's something very different. We're going to open the doors and study it and see how it's working."
Fifth graders, who will now attend Herberg, will have two electives per day, eight teams of two teachers (two with an additional inclusion teacher), and a 40-minute lunch recess.
For sixth graders at Herberg, the current curriculum and schedule will be maintained, and one assistant principal will be assigned to the grade.
The 40-minute lunch recess will amount to a little more time for 6th graders, and about 20 minutes less for fifth grade. That was balanced out with an extra elective.
"One of the things that we heard from students was that they wanted more elective classes on a more consistent basis, and so that is something that they will get," Phillips said.
The 7-8 grade campus at Reid will be largely the same as far as structure, she said, but the district is looking to offer more electives and student options to the school day. At the junior high campus, the district is looking at opportunities for enhanced college and career preparation.
The school administration found a lack of central office support for the music and arts programs, and elective teachers have been placed in the schools.
"We absolutely are committed to our music and arts, I actually think we need to expand it, so that'll be some of the work that we look at in this upcoming year," Phillips explained.
"And the other area that presented a bit of a challenge was also our world languages."
Pittsfield Public Schools haven't had a full-time Spanish teacher at the middle level for several years. At Reid, there will be three teams for each grade level and expanded electives, such as Spanish, Latin, and Italian, and STEM classes.
School Committee member Daniel Elias praised the support for music and arts.
"All too often, communities, especially when there's bad budget times, they go after those areas," he said.
"So it's reassuring to hear that not only are you keeping those intact, but actually potentially looking at growing those, because they are, I think, very important to many."
There will be several after-school activities at Reid as well, including the 21st Century after-school program, intramural sports, theatre productions and musicals, mock trials, clubs and enrichment activities, and more. Herberg will also have intramural sports and new clubs, and the district is exploring additional programming through community partners.
Teachers identified whether they would like to stay in the same building and be assigned to a different grade, or if they wanted to move buildings and teach the same grade.
Phillips said the Human Resources office has been "deeply" involved with staff assignment and scheduling. She reported that it was a successful process for the middle school restructuring and the closure of Morningside Community School.
Director of Human Resources Anne Marie Carpenter said all classroom teachers leaving Morningside and doing the restructuring from an elementary school to a middle school have been placed. She reported that a couple of placements are in progress, and the final push is to get specialists and instrumental staff set.
"Hopefully by the end of this week, early next week, everyone will get a notification on that, but it really makes me happy that we are able to place all of our teachers," Carpenter said.
"We also did have some changes in our paraprofessional personnel, and we were able to place all of them in positions."
Assignment letters will go out closer to the contractual date in August.
Tags: grade reconfiguration, Pittsfield Public Schools,
