Winship Middle School to Reopen
Big changes are coming for Eureka City Schools as a decision is made to reopen Winship Middle School. Students and teachers will be shuffled and we’re learning tonight that the decision to reopen was based on parents’ wishes. The decision was finally made last night after a yearlong discussion.
Currently, there’s only one Eureka Middle School- Zane. There are four elementary schools, and five feeder schools that contain 6th graders. Those six graders will be moved to the traditional 6th, 7th and 8th grade model.
According to the superintendent, parents requested that the Winship school reopen and for the sake of pleasing the stakeholders the district moved on that proposal. Overcrowding was another factor. It’s an issue that doesn’t look to slow down.
Van Vleck, says, “So it's kind of a nice thing to solve multiple problems in that we're able to get the 6th graders off of the elementary schools get them into the middle school model, reopen Winship which will take car of what some of our stakeholders want and at the same time react to what some of the research shows, which is that the middle school model is a more effective model to serve students needs.”
The good news for 7th graders at Zane Middle School, They will not be affected by this consolidation. Administrators say they do not want to split up those kids who've been matriculating together over the last couple of years.
A search for a principal is at the top of the list. From there they will build a leadership team at both middle schools to help get a plan. Van Veleck says that finding teachers is not an issue.
“Some of those teachers will come from Zane, some of those teachers will come from EHS. And some of those teachers will come from one of the four elementary schools,“ says Van Vleck.
Currently two programs are housed on the Winship campus. The district is looking to move the Zoe Barnum and adult learning programs to other schools; possibly offering night classes for those students.
Eureka city schools hopes to start this consolidation in the fall of 2013.
