Miami Herald: New K-8 school is a first for Broward
Dec 8, 2009
The Miami Herald published this article on December 8, 2009.
When Broward County opens its first K-8 school next fall, it will make its first foray into an education model that Miami-Dade has embraced for years.
BY HANNAH SAMPSON AND PATRICIA MAZZEI
Henry Cuesta, 6, pogo-hopped around the playground with the rest of his first-grade class during P.E. Nearby, teenage schoolmates swung badminton rackets before running sprints.
That coexisting of young and old is business as usual at David Lawrence Jr. K-8 Center, one of 27 such combined schools that have opened or been converted in Miami-Dade County in the last decade or so.
Soon, Broward County will join the growing number of school districts that are trying out the “elemiddle” model. The district’s first K-8 school, which will also include preschool kids and have a Montessori approach, opens in the fall in Hollywood’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. The magnet school will be open to all students in the south part of the county. Montessori programs focus on students learning at their own pace.
It will be an experiment of sorts for the Broward school district, both a venture into K-8 Montessori education and an effort to lure students from private and charter schools in an era of declining public school enrollment.
“It’s so exciting. It’s just one of those things that the district is going to be so proud of,” said Joe Balchunas, principal of the unnamed school. “All eyes are on this school.”
Broward already has three K-8 charter schools, which are publicly funded and privately run. Eight more could open next school year.
But board members want to keep families in the traditional public schools and out of charter and private schools. They think K-8s are one way to do that.
“The students are here,” said School Board chairwoman Jennifer Gottlieb, who has pushed for the K-8. “But we have to draw them back into our schools.”
MORE TO COME?
If it works, board members have said they would consider creating K-8s elsewhere — like in existing, underenrolled elementary or middle schools that could otherwise face closure.
“This is all about being competitive,” Robin Bartleman said. “Dade County has successful K-8 models that people are very interested in.”
Nahum Arnet, a first-grader at David Lawrence Jr. K-8 Center, near Florida International University’s North Miami campus, likes typical school things like playing, eating and doing math. But he also enjoys being at the same school as his older brothers, who are in fifth and seventh grades.
“I wanna be like them,” Nahum said.
There’s no definitive research that says K-8 schools are more effective than traditional middle schools, said Al Summers, director of professional development for the National Middle School Association.
Both models have pros and cons, Summers said: K-8s tend to be smaller enrollment than the typical middle school, which is attractive to many parents and educators, but older students at those schools might be exposed to fewer electives and extracurricular activities.
Summers said the combined centers have been gaining popularity in recent years.
“The K-8 idea in some urban centers especially has been looked at as their hopes for positive change,” he said.
The Lawrence K-8 Center, which opened in 2006, has a combined student population of 1,350. Projected enrollment at the new Hollywood school is 750. Many middle schools have more than that in their three grades alone.
Principal Bernard Osborn said parents with kids in several grades like the setup, and students find the transition from fifth to sixth grade — typically a daunting switch from elementary to middle school — much easier.
“The kids just have to walk upstairs,” he said.
Students do have to give up middle school sports, but can choose to go to the area’s traditional middle school if they want to be part of an athletic program.
While having preschoolers and teenagers on the same campus requires planning and observation, Osborn said there have been no problems with interactions. The school is split into lower, middle and upper academies and educators stress values.
THE STUDENTS
Osborn said kids who transfer from traditional middle schools seem wowed: “I’m not just a number. I’m actually a person,” he said, describing their reactions.
Seventh-grader Adam Lowinger, 12, said he likes being on the same campus for longer than kids at most schools.
“You always know where your old teacher is,” he said. “It’s really good being here for awhile.”
In Broward, where the state has said the district has too many empty seats to justify any new building, construction on the Hollywood school continued because the project was already significantly under way when the state ruling came out, according to the district.
Some in the Lincoln Park community around the school have said they would prefer a neighborhood elementary as originally planned instead of the magnet school. And area residents have asked that more seats go to neighborhood kids.
If the School Board signs off on a recommendation Superintendent Jim Notter will make Tuesday, the K-8 will have 150 seats for children living in the South Broward High School boundary.
Balchunas, the new school’s principal, said he has been touring K-8 centers as well as Montessori schools to prepare. While details of the school’s setup are still being hammered out, he said he will make sure the middle school kids have opportunities to engage socially like clubs and extracurriculars and sports.
“They’re going to have to feel like they’re appreciated and valued just as much as primary students are,” he said.
Balchunas said he thinks parents who have chosen private or charter schools might see things they like in the new school:
“It might bring people back.”