Richardson | September 2022

Becoming middle schools

Forest Meadow Junior High Status: under construction Estimated completion: 2024 Expected increase in enrollment: 735 Cost: $63 million

Richardson ISD has eight junior high and 41 elementary schools. The district is planning to renovate or rebuild all its junior high campuses by the start of the 2030-31 school year to create middle school campuses that serve grades 6-8.

CAMPBELL RD.

ARAPAHO RD.

BELT LINE RD.

Middle school renovations expected to be completed by the 203031 school year:

Rendering courtesy Richardson ISD

BUCKINGHAM RD.

Lake Highlands Junior High Status: early scope work Estimated completion: 2024 Expected increase in enrollment : 669 Cost: $94 million

Apollo Junior High Liberty Junior High STEM Academy Parkhill Junior High Richardson North Junior High Richardson West Junior High Westwood Junior High

WALNUT ST.

FOREST LN.

635

WALNUT HILL LN.

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Rendering courtesy Richardson ISD

SOURCE: RICHARDSON ISD/COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER

assistance opportunities for RISD students, Branum said. Funds from the 2021 RISD bond will be used to pay for the Lake High- lands and Forest Meadow project. District officials said feedback from the community about both projects has been positive, and they hope to propose similar projects for the dis- trict’s six other junior highs in the next five years. A benefit to the district District officials said they hope to increase enrollment for pre-K stu- dents through the middle school transformation. All existing elemen- tary schools serve pre-K through sixth grade. Branum said the extra room created by the removal of sixth grad- ers would allow the district to sup- port the increased demand for pre-K enrollment, which is expected to increase to nearly 1,900 students by the 2023-24 school year, according to a 2021 demographer report. “We know that [pre-K] is definitely something that our community wants to see our district invest in,” Branum said. “Our elementary schools haven’t had the capacity to accept every pre-K student that would want a spot. We think middle school configuration will play a big part in providing that room.” Brentfield and Mohawk elemen- tary schools are expected to reach capacity within the next decade, according to a 2021 demographer’s report. Summer Martin, RISD’s direc- tor of counseling services, said it is

better for the district to group stu- dents at school more closely based on age. She said the eight-year dif- ference between pre-K students and sixth graders is a large gap. “Developmentally, it is more appropriate to have our 12-year- old[s] with our seventh and eighth graders rather than our pre-K stu- dents, because they’re starting to go through the same things,” Martin said. “If we have them in the same building, we can address their needs in a better fashion, because we are dealing with other students who are going through the same things.” Along with enrollment benefits, district officials said the shift to a middle school model will also aid students and teachers academically. Forest Meadow Junior High Prin- cipal Susan Burt said an additional year of middle school before high school will benefit student learning by giving teachers at those campuses more time to work with them. “Looking at our algebra alone, we could be able to make tremendous gains from an academic standpoint by being able to have them longer than two years on this campus,” Burt said. “We can have them for an added year and really see who they are, not only from a social and emotional stand- point, but from an academic place.” In addition, Branum said a shift toward middle schools will allow sixth grade students to experience a variety of programs and specialties that are unable to be produced at the

elementary school level, including career and technical education, fine arts, and athletics. “It’s hard to replicate all of those programs at our 41 elementary campuses, both from a staffing, a resource and a funding perspective,” she said. “However, when you have those available at future middle schools, that allows our kids begin- ning in sixth grade to explore a lot of different courses and identify what things they are passionate about.” Lesson planning will also be eas- ier for sixth grade teachers under the new approach, since the state designs its curriculum based on the middle school model, Branum said. Incorporating sixth graders at the secondary level will also help reduce travel and stress on teachers, accord- ing to Jeff Bradford, RISD executive director of fine arts. “Some of our teachers have to travel on a daily basis to teach at three or four different campuses,” Bradford said. “This will reduce District officials said they have already started working on expand- ing the middle school transformation program to the district’s six remain- ing junior high schools. Assistant Superintendent of Operations Sandra Hayes said the district anticipates all remaining junior highs will be turned into middle schools by the start of the 2030-31 school year. some of [that travel time].” Expansion to more schools

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junior high schools are first up in the transformation process. However, officials said RISD plans to evaluate options this fall to accelerate the change for students in the remainder of the district. “The benefits for all RISD students impacted [by the] middle school model is best summed up by the word opportunity,” RISD Superintendent Tabitha Branum said in a statement. “Our sixth graders transitioning to a middle school campus will be offered more opportunities academically, socially and in extracurriculars. The excitement in the Lake Highlands community for the 2024 transition has been matched by consistent requests from RISD’s other learning communities for the district to eval- uate ways to bring the middle school model to the remaining six junior highs sooner than later.” District officials said work on the Forest Meadow and Lake Highlands junior high campuses started this sum- mer and is expected to continue until at least 2024. The district is expected to spend more than $150 million on creating the two middle schools. Branum said the use of junior high schools is outdated for a modern school district, with 95% of districts in Texas adopting middle schools rather than junior highs. This new system will solve campus capac- ity issues for the district while pro- viding more academic and social

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