Is McCulloch Intermediate School restructuring or eliminating sixth grade houses? That’s what some parents concluded after getting an email from Principal Amanda Reyes.
Here’s what Principal Reyes wrote:
Dear 6th Grade Parents and Guardians,
I hope this letter finds you and your family well and ready for a restful and rejuvenating summer break. As we begin preparations for the upcoming school year, I wanted to take a moment to share some important information about the year ahead and how we are planning to support a strong and successful transition into 6th grade for your child.
Each new school year brings fresh opportunities for growth, learning, and community building. Our team is already hard at work to ensure that your child has a safe, welcoming, and enriching environment in which to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.
This year, all principals across the district were given updated staffing guidelines designed to help us staff our schools in a way that is balanced, efficient, and reflective of the unique needs of our student body. These guidelines encourage us to:
* Staff all classes appropriately, based on enrollment and student needs.
* Ensure an equitable distribution of students across classrooms.
* Maximize the strengths and talents of our current educators to best support student learning.
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With these principles in mind, we are thoughtfully organizing our 6th grade classrooms to provide the best possible learning experience for every student. Our teachers are passionate, dedicated, and bring a wide range of experience and expertise that we are excited to leverage in the year ahead.
We appreciate your understanding and partnership as we make decisions that are aligned with district expectations and focused on what is best for students. More specific information about class assignments and schedules will be shared in August.
Over the course of the last several years, MIS has used a “house system” by which to group students. In 5th grade, students were assigned to a house and an advisory (homeroom), and they traveled from class to class in that group throughout the day much like elementary school. Sixth grade students were also assigned to a house, but there was some flexibility in how students traveled among the core classes of their house.
One of the benefits of the house system is that the core teachers for each house are able to discuss students easily because their classrooms are located close together and they share all of their students. However, feedback from surveys, parents, and students indicates that 6th graders are ready to interact with more students/peers after having experienced a self-contained classroom model throughout elementary school and in 5th grade. In addition, many parents and 7th grade teachers have shared that it would be helpful if 6th grade students were given more flexibility and mobility in their schedule to assist in preparing them for 7th grade.
Benefits of more mobility for students in 6th grade:
Increased Socialization: Students meet a wider variety of peers, helping them develop social skills and independence.
Academic Flexibility: Students can be grouped more effectively for various learning needs.
Transition Readiness: Prepares students for the structure of upper grades where they’ll rotate classes and manage multiple teachers.
I realize there has been angst around the possibility of change for our 6th graders, but I want to assure you that we are keeping everyone’s best interest at heart, and the quality of instruction and level of care and attention for your students will continue to be outstanding. We are creating protocols for teachers, principals, and counselors to collaborate frequently and communicate any concerns there may be regarding our students. Parents will always be included in decision-making about their student, as well.
Sixth graders will have an Advisory/Homeroom in the form of an added 20 minutes to their 1st period class. We feel this valuable time at the beginning of the day will be very productive. Advisory time will be used for team-building, study skills instruction, and small group intervention. The Advisory/Homeroom teacher will be one of their core subject teachers. All students will still have a group of teachers that love them, communicate about them, and do everything in their power to provide the best educational experiences they can. The staffing model that I and all principals have been charged to follow allows us to staff more efficiently, and by having teachers teach 5 of their 7 periods a day, we are able to have approximately a 22:1 ratio, which was also a request from our teachers.
Developing this plan has taken time, but we wanted to make sure that we had all the details we felt you would want before sharing it with everyone. Thank you for your patience, and we are very excited about watching your kids become spectacular Sixth Graders in the fall!
In the meantime, if you have any questions or would like to learn more about our plans for the school year, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Sincerely,
Principal Amanda Reyes
While the email does not specify the changes planned for McCulloch Intermediate sixth graders or the house system, it prompted concerned parents to speak at the June 17 Highland Park ISD board of trustees meeting.
“We received communication for the new structure with very vague details after school let out, and the email indicated that one of the driving forces of this change was due to budget. I don’t think that is the best interest of the students, teachers, or parents,” said Laura Price, the mother of an incoming sixth grader. “My daughter excelled in fifth grade this past year with the house structure … And I think this is particularly due to the structure of the house, which provides a network of classmates that she was able to lean on for homework and testing, and then also have a core group of teachers.”
Price said that she was also uncertain how students would be placed in core classes after the change, and that she was worried communication between parents and teachers would suffer.
She said that her daughter, a competitive athlete, typically finishes her homework in her advisory class at the end of the day. She didn’t think her sixth grader would be able to use her 20-minute morning advisory period as efficiently.
Parent Lindsey Doramus echoed Price’s concerns about the morning advisory and potential changes to the house system. She said she was confused about why Principal Reyes’ email was sent after the final day of school.
“The numbers didn’t change from the beginning of the school year to the end of the school year,” she said. “It felt like it was the last moment to tell us. That was disarming for everybody, and didn’t instill a lot of confidence.”
If the changes are due to budget concerns, Doramus said, then parents would like to come together and try to find a solution.
“It’s all hearsay because the email was so vague,” she said. “But we just feel like this structure is not really in the best interest of the kids.”
