Kent School Board rejects proposal to move sixth graders to middle schools

It appears sixth-grade students in Kent won’t be moving to middle schools from elementary schools for the 2021-2022 school year.

The Kent School Board voted 4-0 on Jan. 27 against a proposed boundary review recommended by Kent School District administration staff and the Florida-based MGT Consulting Group. The proposal included boundary changes for numerous schools due to a new elementary school opening in the fall as well as moving sixth graders to middle schools to create more room in overcrowded elementary schools.

“I have concerns about students not being in school and the shift,” Board President Denise Daniels said prior to the vote at the virtual meeting. “I’ve heard from community members, and I am comfortable with the boundary shift, it’s the middle school shift I’m struggling with.”

Many parents told the board through emails that they oppose sixth graders moving to middle schools in the fall because they have been in remote learning at home since March due to COVID-19. They said it would be too much of a change for students to essentially go from fourth grade to middle school since kids have remained in remote learning this school year.

“I’ve heard from the community and they are in favor of sixth graders moving up eventually, and staff and teachers are in favor, but the timing is the problem,” Board Director Leslie Hamada said. “We are adding another brick to the pandemic with virtual learning or going back or not. It adds a lot of weight and pressure and stress.”

The Kent School District is redrawing its school boundaries for the first time in a dozen years due to the opening of a new elementary school (River Ridge) next fall on the West Hill.

With the board’s rejection of the recommendations in the School Boundary Review Final Report and no alternative measures presented, none of the proposed changes were approved.

“The new elementary school currently being built will require boundary adjustments to open its doors to students this fall,” said Melissa Laramie, school district spokesperson, in an email. “A timeline for next steps was not discussed at the Jan. 27 meeting.”

Laramie said reducing overcrowding, equitable access to educational programming and balancing enrollment across all schools remain district priorities.

Daniels asked Rob Tanner, of MGT Consulting Group, during a school board workshop prior to the regular meeting about splitting off moving sixth graders to middle schools from the proposal.

“If you don’t want to move forward with sixth graders to middle school, the only thing you could do this year is change boundaries impacted by the new elementary school,” said Tanner, who added everything else recommended in the report are “all cogs in the wheel.”

The board could decide at a future meeting to approve boundary changes this fall for the new elementary school and consider the rest of the recommendations, including moving sixth graders to middle schools, at a later date.

“I’d like to see us work on this in waves,” Hamada said. “This report doesn’t allow that.”

Board Director Maya Vengadasalam said she wanted more information about whether the state might reduce funding to schools, whether the district has enough money set aside to implement the proposal and how enrollment numbers could change.

“We don’t have any certainty there will not be reduced funding to school districts,” Vengadasalam said. “And there is no certainty we will not lose more students to online schools.”

Board Director Michele Bettinger agreed with the financial concerns and had more questions about using the former Sequioa Junior High as a middle school despite the age of the building.

“Beyond that the timing is not right,” Bettinger said. “Fifth graders will only have a few months to catch up (before moving to middle schools).”

Hamada said in a Jan. 28 Facebook post that she would like to make sure all the remaining elementary schools return to the original boundaries and get the students oriented going back to school in person and have them academically and social emotionally well-adjusted to this new normal of in person and perfecting it.

“At that time I would like to see a series of in-person series of community conversations held on boundary changes and moving sixth graders to middle schools,” Hamada said.

Parents had complained to Hamada and other board directors that they were disappointed about a lack of opportunity to ask questions and get answers about the proposal beyond a survey that was posted online and a few online meetings in December that were more of a presentation by the consulting group.