One of the arguments District 95 officials used to justify a major addition at Brook Park School was that fifth-graders would benefit from being relocated back into the elementary school environment.
That relocation will have a separate benefit, officials say, for the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students remaining at S.E. Gross Middle School.
Beginning next year, the school will scrap its old exploratory class schedule in favor of one in which students can choose semester or even year-long electives to give them more exposure and in-depth instruction in non-core curriculum classes, including Spanish and band.
“As a middle school I think what we’re trying to do is to give students as many opportunities as possible and also prepare them for high school so they can step in and work at a high level,” said Todd Fitzgerald, principal of S.E. Gross Middle School.
Currently, students in grades five through eight at S.E. Gross School take a rotating series of “exploratory” courses, one per quarter.
For example, students in fifth grade take music, technology, art and Spanish, while eighth-graders rotate through industrial arts, arts, consumer science and Spanish.
While students get seven or eight weeks of exposure to the subject each time, it’s not enough to begin mastering any of them.
Beginning next year a semester-long Spanish and year-long band elective will be offered at the sixth-grade level in addition to semester-long electives in art, music, consumer science, industrial arts and creative writing/speech/drama.
Seventh- and eighth-graders, in addition to the semester-long electives, can choose to take the year-long band elective and a full year of Spanish instruction.
And instead of one exploratory subject each quarter, students will be able to choose two elective courses each semester.
“This offers a much richer experience, and we’ll be able to integrate other subject areas into art, consumer science, and the other electives,” said District 95 Superintendent Thomas Hurlburt.
In reality, S.E. Gross will be adding a class period to the school schedule next year, which will replace the 30-minute homeroom and 20-minute advisory period now in the schedule. And it will be easier to integrate the new elective schedule next year when fifth grade is no longer in the mix at S.E. Gross.
By offering a full year of Spanish instruction for seventh- and eighth-graders, “they’ll be able to get intense instruction and may even be able to opt out of Spanish I at the high school level,” Fitzgerald said.
Since Riverside-Brookfield High School has a consumer science requirement in its curriculum, the semester-long consumer science elective at S.E. Gross School may also allow those students to test out of the class at RB, allowing them to pursue other directions at the high school level.
The change will likely also strengthen the band program at S.E. Gross School. Currently, students in the band are pulled out of core classes for those sessions, a practice which may have made some students and parents reluctant to participate.
As an elective, band will be taught during its own class period, with no disruption to the core class schedule.