Published: November 18, 2008 11:40 pm         

Enid Public Schools contemplating move from a junior high to a middle school system

“We’re counted as high school,” said Emerson Junior High School ninth-grader Dakerra Da-vis. “Why would we want to stay here with eighth-grade rules?”

It may be too late for Davis, but Enid’s freshmen of the fu-ture might be attending classes at Enid High School.

In an attempt to quickly remedy a portion of the current elementary school overcrowding problem, Enid Public Schools officials soon may be doing a little bit of rearranging. The possibility on the table is a proposal to change from a junior high system to a middle school system. In a middle school system, middle school begins in sixth grade and high school begins in ninth grade.

Moving sixth-grade students up to middle school and ninth-grade students to Enid High will give the elementary schools a little bit of breathing room. Cur-rently, Enid’s elementary schools are over capacity by about 650 students, and the three junior highs and high school are under capacity, Superintendent Shawn Hime told school board members Mon-day.

Dianne Burris, a mother of an Emerson student, thinks the idea is a good one.

“I’ve got an eighth-grader,” she said, “and she’s really nervous about it, but I think it’s a great thing. Especially if the grade schools are over crowded.”

Emerson mom Brandy Walker also thinks it is a good idea because the majority of school districts are using the middle school concept.

Kimberley Kerns is a little more hesitant. As the mother of a seventh-grader at Emerson, she does not think sixth-grade students are ready for middle school.

“And the ninth-graders are way too young to be at Enid High,” she said. “I think it should be kept like it is.”

Emerson ninth-grade student Shalonnda Frazier also thinks the current system should be left in place.

“I mean, it’s been like this for the whole time,” she said.

While a change may be a shock for some kids, one mother and a teacher think the kids can handle it.

“Kids adapt to anything,” said mother Georgina Herrera.

Emerson teacher Linda Outhier also is the parent of an eighth-grade student, and while the prospect of her child going to high school is a little nerve wracking, Outhier believes it will work out.

“I think it’s exciting. I think it’s scary,” she said. “I think all the faculties are going to be willing to work together.”

Alishia Rowley is the mother of a fifth-grade Hayes Elementary School student and a seventh-grade Waller Junior High School student.

Rowley said she already was concerned about her fifth-grader having only one more year to mature enough to be ready for junior high, and the prospect of him going to middle school next year made her a little more concerned.

However, Rowley said other problems in the district will be solved by converting to a middle school system, such as transportation problems for ninth-grade athletes, musicians and those taking advanced courses at the high school.

EPS officials are hosting a series of parent meetings on the possible conversion to the middle school system. There will be a meeting held at each school in the district.

The meeting schedule is:

• Adams Elementary School, 5 p.m. Dec. 8.

• Coolidge Elementary School, 6 p.m. Thursday.

• Garfield Elementary School, 7 p.m. Dec. 9.

• Glenwood Elementary School, 5:30 p.m. Monday.

• Hayes Elementary School, 3:15 p.m. Dec. 9.

• Hoover Elementary School, 6:30 p.m. Dec. 8.

• McKinley Elementary School, 5:30 p.m. Dec. 1.

• Monroe Elementary School, 7 p.m. Monday.

• Taft ElementarySchool, 5:30 p.m. Dec. 9.

• Emerson Junior High School, 5:15 p.m. Dec. 10.

• Longfellow Junior High School, 7 p.m. Dec. 9.

• Waller Junior High School, 6;15 p.m. Dec. 2.

• Enid High School, 6 p.m. Dec. 11.