The Cupertino Courier

Middle schools may solve space crunch

CUSD considers more options for reducing class sizes in K-3

By Katherine Petersen

The Cupertino Union School District may move its sixth-grade classes onto junior high school campuses by fall 1998 to make more room for class-size reduction.

The district's facilities advisory committee is also considering year-round schooling and portable classrooms to bring class sizes in grades K-3 down to 20 or fewer students.

One problem with putting portables on elementary campuses is the space: many schools just don't have the room for portables.

"Another option would be to move sixth-graders to the junior high and create a transitional middle school program around them," Superintendent William Bragg said.

The five junior high schools have more room for portables, which would relieve the space crunch facing elementary schools. For example, at Collins Elementary, moving three sixth-grade classes would create enough space to reduce class sizes in all K-3 classes, Bragg said.

"There are lots of implications, and all of them have to be looked through," he said. The committee is scheduled to make a report along with recommendations to the school board at its Nov. 18 meeting.

The 45-member facilities committee, including parents, teachers and community leaders, has been divided into four subcommittees that will meet and exchange reports Oct. 7 at Lincoln Elementary School at 7 p.m., 21710 McClellan Road, Cupertino.

"Middle schools are widely accepted throughout the state," said Bragg, who helped convert junior highs to middle schools in the Oceanside Unified School District, where he worked before coming to CUSD. "Middle schools tend to have smaller groups for instruction, where junior highs are almost mini-high schools. A middle school is more transitional."

Middle school campuses in the Oceanside District had more of an elementary school feel for sixth-graders, but eighth-graders, in preparation for high school, had larger classes and many different teachers.

"The teachers felt good because they were able to get to know students better having them for three years," he said. "There was a calming influence on the junior high campuses."

The facilities committee will also look at the district's six leased or closed sites, including Eaton, which will more than likely open in the fall of 1998 in some capacity.

"The answer to how we move ahead with facilities isn't simple," said Chuck Corr, director of business services. "It's very complex, and each possible way we move opens up another whole set of scenarios. We have to answer a lot of questions before we can start crunching numbers."

If the school board chooses to move forward with moving sixth-graders onto junior high campuses, the district has a committee in place that is studying core and elective curriculums, team-teaching and issues of special needs students.

The program committee won't report back to the board until January. CUSD has been studying middle school programs and adding elements gradually since a task force studied the issue in 1990, Bragg said.

Members of the committee include parents of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, teachers and administrators.

"We didn't want to have one group dealing with both issues," Bragg said. "If we identify specific schools where we might move sixth-graders, then we will get parents and teachers from those schools so they have more of a feel for what's going on."

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