Community Shares Opinions over Future of North Hills Ninth Grade

** For those who were unable to attend the Oct. 24 session, high school Principal John Kreider made his presentation available online: Click here for Part I of the presentation. Click here for Part II. ** 

Dozens of teachers, parents and students gathered the evening of Oct. 24 to discuss the fate of ninth grade class.

At last week’s school board meeting, to move the ninth grade from the junior high school with grades seven and eight to the senior high school with grades 10, 11 and 12.

“Why are we doing this now? If it is such a great idea, why didn’t we do it 10 years ago?” asked Ed Vesely, who is the parent of an eleventh-grader at the .

Assistant Superintendent  said last week that a recent decline in enrollment at the high school had created the space necessary for such a move.  

The high school has the capacity for 1,687 students, but the student enrollment for the 2011-2012 school year is 1,075. The district has an enrollment of about 350 ninth-graders who now share a building with grades seven and eight — though they occasionally attend classes at the high school.

“North Hills is one of the top high schools in America, I truly believe that,” said sophomore class president Stanley Marciniak during Monday's discussion. “Our test scores have shown that. Why would we change a model that is clearly successful for us?”

Marciniak was not alone in his assessment of the situation. Many teachers and staff expressed similar concerns that there was no reason to change the system.

“I don’t believe the capacity here is 1,677, and I want them to show me that,” Vesely said. “I think it’s a lot less.”

Vesely went on to cite concerns about traffic flow in between classes, and how staircases and hallways may become extremely crowded because they are the most direct way to get from place to place.

Questions were also raised about lunch periods and if staff could handle the additional flow of students, how class sizes would fluctuate, and how the dislocation of research materials may affect curriculum.

“How are we going to smoothly transition the junior high library collection into part of my collection?” asked senior high school librarian Sandra Miller.

Miller is also the parent of a seventh-grader and said she feels extreme apprehension over his future, since he may be one of the first classes affected by the proposed change.

“Mr. Kreider has done a fantastic job of trying to get these things planned,” Miller said after the presentation. “They do listen, and the district really does care about kids. Some of my concerns as a parent and a teacher are just making sure the transition happens smoothly, if it happens. And as a taxpayer, making sure it is worth the effort. I want to see both facilities used.”

Kreider said he believes that the change will allow the ninth-grade curriculum to continue its ongoing expansion. He has devised several committees that any member of the school community can join to help plan and research the possible effects of this switch.

“Anytime that you put something out there that involves change, you expect to hear input from other people,” Kreider said. “And I think that what we heard here was a nice dialogue. It draws a sharper attention to what are the services we are currently providing to our students, and in general, just serves as an educational environment for parents to learn about the services we provide.”

But perhaps the biggest problem noted by members of the community was the seeming lack of consideration given for students’ opinions. While Kreider stressed that every voice will be taken into account, many people thought that the students should be given the most important say through a tabulated vote, as it is their future.

“If the vote is overwhelming,” Vesely said, “and 90 percent don’t want to move over there, you have to listen to that.”

What potential problems or concerns do you see with the big move? What benefits do you see? Tell us in the comments.