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. Burt said an additional year of middle school before high school will benefit student learning by giv- ing 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 emo- tional standpoint, but from an aca- demic 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,
according 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 some of [that travel time].” Project scope Assistant Superintendent of Operations Sandra Hayes said con- struction will take a minimum of 24 months for the two campus projects in development. While some cam- puses will simply be renovated, older junior high schools in the district, such as Lake Highlands Junior High, will need to be completely rebuilt. “Because our buildings are older and were built under a different instructional model, we need time to make some significant changes,” Hayes said. “In some of our build- ings, we’ve identified a need to rebuild them completely because of their age.” Construction at Forest Meadow Junior High will rotate along different parts of the campus to accommodate students, and portable classrooms will also be used for classes during the school year. The Lake Highlands Junior High campus will be demolished once the new middle school is built. Other middle school amenities will be con- structed in its place, including new paving and parking, tennis courts, site lighting and landscaping. According to district officials, Lake Highlands Junior High was chosen to be demolished and rebuilt into a mid- dle school because the cost to repair “systemic foundation issues” there was more than the price to build a new campus. Forest Meadow Junior High is being renovated because, along with Lake Highlands Junior High, it is one of the schools that sends its students to Lake Highlands
Richardson ISD officials have spent the last five years figuring out how transform its junior high campuses into middle schools. Many of the districts junior high buildings are over 50 years old. Planning for change
RISD Secondary Schools are built as junior highs to serve grades 7-8.
50 s -70 s
Officials begin discussing renovating junior highs into middle schools.
2017
The RISD bond is approved, including $694 million for the Middle School Transformation Project.
2021
The guaranteed maximum prices are approved for work at Lake Highlands and Forest Meadow junior highs.
2022
Construction is expected to be complete on both Forest Meadow Middle School and Lake Highlands Middle School.
2024
Construction will begin on six other junior high campuses to transform them into middle schools.
2026
A potential bond election is held for middle school transformation for the rest of the district.
2026-30
All middle schools will be open and serving sixth through eighth grade students.
2030-31
SOURCE: RICHARDSON ISD/COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
Hayes said the district is still dis- cussing the best method for how to finance the remaining projects, including potential adoption in a 2026 bond election. “We’ve heard from the commu- nity now that they would love to accelerate and get these other [six junior high schools] done sooner,” Hayes said. “Once we have been able to identify funding for those six, we would like to go ahead and just finish them up as [one] project rather than try to spread them out.”
High School. Expansion to further schools
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. Hayes said the district anticipates all remaining junior highs will be turned into mid- dle schools by the start of the 2030- 31 school year. The district has heard feedback from other junior high staff mem- bers, students and parents that they want to be included in the transfor- mation project as soon as possible, according to Hayes.
For more information, visit communityimpact.com .
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LAKE HIGHLANDS - LAKEWOOD EDITION • SEPTEMBER 2022
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