South Walton Fifth Graders Might Be Moved to Middle School

Is this for real, or a way of focusing light on class size / budget issues?

Is this proposal just physically moving 5th grade students to the middle school building, or is it actually making 5th grade part of middle school?

Is this for real, or a way of focusing light on class size / budget issues?

Guess parents will find out about it at the meetings.

I guess my question is this-- if the schools in the south part of the county have had steady and consistent growth for 10 straight years, where was the planning?

Walton County schools have been growing for the last decade. On average, about 100 new students enroll each year in all schools. That number spiked to more than 300 students last October.
To deal with the growth, the district has built new schools and enlarged others.
?We?re reacting to a situation we have now and also being proactive to the growth pattern we?ve seen,? Anderson said.

Please don't get me started on this. With my oldest being 9 and starting 5th grade before turning 10, I am beyond peeved. There is enough social pressure on these kids without putting them in with kids so much older.

A long-time resident was telling me at the farmer's market this morning that the lack of planning for schools goes back for decades & that essentially nothing has changed from when their family had kids in the schools.

Why should our children pay the price for poor planning? I think that our fifth graders deserve the right to be fifth graders. I would say this is a way to blame the class size ammendment, but in reality they obviously built a huge middle school that has plenty of room for more children. When do these people learn that we don't care how the building looks - we care about what is in the building - the teachers, the curriculum, the support, the parents and the passion for teaching. I hope that our parents come in large numbers to show our concern and disapproval of this proposition. We have to be the voice of our children.

So.. we need a new elementary school and soon. is this in the works?

Dumb move....

This is about as good as the woman who says radiation won't hurt you.
Carlene Anderson is just that ignorant. It is hard enough for children who are in 6th grade over at the middle school. The last thing we need is to make these elementary kids grow up any faster. There are better options....there have to be! It will be a good day when this woman leaves the office of education and goes on about her business. Parents please stand up for your rights....your children deserve better.

What are they going to use the classrooms that currently house ECMS for? Seems that would be plenty of space to keep the 5th grade in, at least at Butler.

My 5th grade class was part of the middle school. K-3 at one school, 3-8 at another, 9-12 at the high school.

We didn't have any problems. :idontno:

This is about as good as the woman who says radiation won't hurt you.
Carlene Anderson is just that ignorant. It is hard enough for children who are in 6th grade over at the middle school. The last thing we need is to make these elementary kids grow up any faster. There are better options....there have to be! It will be a good day when this woman leaves the office of education and goes on about her business. Parents please stand up for your rights....your children deserve better.

Wow. What an inflammatory post. :nono1:

I don't have a dog in the hunt here, as I don't have children, but it makes me angry when I see posts like this one. I believe Ms. Anderson has only been in office since about 2004 (based on a quick search of the threads here), and the above comments make it clear that there had been problems of this nature long before then. Furthermore, is there not, in fact, an entire school BOARD who would aid the Superintendent in making decisions like this? :idontno:

Why don't we focus on the issue at hand, and not reduce this to a schoolyard vendetta against one person? Thanks! :wave:

When I was in first grade, my school had grades 1-8.

My son also went to an Elementary/Middle school that was K-8 grade. The elementary students were in one part of the campus and the middle school was in another part of the campus. They did share the lunchroom and gym though. No problems were encountered. I can see why parents would be concerned if all the students were going to be in the same building though.

This is about as good as the woman who says radiation won't hurt you.
Carlene Anderson is just that ignorant. It is hard enough for children who are in 6th grade over at the middle school. The last thing we need is to make these elementary kids grow up any faster. There are better options....there have to be! It will be a good day when this woman leaves the office of education and goes on about her business. Parents please stand up for your rights....your children deserve better.

I agree with Kitlit. This type of talk won't help you get your point across. You will be seen as the ignorant one. I agree with your point about the issue but the way you say it is not helpful.

When I was in first grade, my school had grades 1-8.

I went to school - grades 1-8 in one school.

But, I see how parents are now used to a different model, so it may be difficult to convince them that 5th graders need to move over to middle school.

My son also went to an Elementary/Middle school that was K-8 grade. The elementary students were in one part of the campus and the middle school was in another part of the campus. They did share the lunchroom and gym though. No problems were encountered. I can see why parents would be concerned if all the students were going to be in the same building though.

We were all in the same building. In fact, some of the responsibility for keeping the 1st graders under control and looking after them was delegated to the 8th graders. More often than not, the 8th graders would try to scare you (for fun) by threatening to report you to the principal for some minor infraction. It became a joke and after a while the school catch phrase became "You're reported". We even started saying it to the 8th graders after a while. It turned out that that the ones who were seriously trying to intimidate you were considered to be dweebs by all the other 8th graders.:lol: Times have changed.

I went to school - grades 1-8 in one school.

But, I see how parents are now used to a different model, so it may be difficult to convince them that 5th graders need to move over to middle school.

I agree. Ours was a result of lack of facilities. The Junior High was under construction at the time. This school had no lunch room or gym.

Sorry I'm a little out of touch. When do girls begin menstruating these days?

There are options to this. Parents who don't like it will most likely not be given a second choice. Online High School | Online Middle School | Grades K-12 | Florida Virtual School is a good option for children. There are developmental reasons to why these children are divided in the first place and when I saw the information, I was mad about it all. It is just the final straw that broke the camel's back. I do not have a personal vendetta against her. She has proven through her leadership inabilities that she does not view parents rights as important.
It is for this reason that I voiced my opinion.
It was the board of Walton County that was responsible to keep up with projected growth to plan for those expenditures that would be necessary. That is the job they must do. This "unplanned course of action" on their part should not be a reason to put children in emergency situations where they will be vulnerable at an early age in a middle school setting.
It just isn't right to do. Hopefully, parents will rally together to see that she comes up with an alternate plan. That is all.

I think I am missing something because I don't understand the concerns - are they proposing 5th graders share classes with the older kids or something? :idontno: