HOULTON, Maine — Back-to-school time can be a difficult transition for many children. After a summer filled with days of sleeping in, getting back into a regular routine is often challenging.
For students in RSU 29, however, that regular routine will be dramatically different for several grades as the district has instituted a number of substantial changes for the 2014-15 school year.
Classes begin on Tuesday, Sept. 2 for grades pre-kindergarten to seventh-grade, as well freshmen at Houlton High School. Eighth-graders and those in grades 10-12 do not report until Wednesday, Sept. 3.
For budgetary purposes, the district closed Wellington School in Monticello, which relocates nearly 66 pre-kindergarten to third grade students. To make room for those students, the district has changed which grade levels will be contained in each of its three remaining schools.
Sixth-graders will now attend classes at Houlton High School; grades 3-5 will attend classes at Houlton Southside School; and grades pre-Kindergarten to second grade will be contained at Houlton Elementary School.
According to Superintendent Mike Hammer, the district is renaming its Bird Street building to Houlton Middle/High School to reflect the major change. Previously, it was called Houlton Junior-Senior High School.
With so many changes facing students and parents, the district has held a number of open houses over the summer to help ease concerns. Hammer asked parents to be patient with administrators as they continue to work out all of the details. Additional forums will be held in the fall to see what concerns remain once school begins and what additional changes can be made.
“This year is going to be a work in progress,” he said. “Things we do to start the year may or may not be how we do things at the end of the year.”
Hammer added that while it may seem to some that all of the changes came about suddenly, the district has had its eye on shuffling its grades for some time.
“The conversation has come up multiple times in our long-range planning committee,” he said. “When you look at proficiency-based learning, having these groups of kids (grades 6-8) together makes great sense.”
He added having the elementary school, switch to a pre-K to second grade building has “breathed new life” into the facility.
“I think people will come to realize these changes make perfect sense,” he said. “It was tough timing, but I think in the end it will really be best for the kids.”
At the forums held this summer, some parents expressed concerns over having the sixth-graders mingling with older students. Hammer said the district has gone to great lengths to minimize the interaction, but admitted there will still be times when a sixth-grader may have to go on their own from their classroom to the band room for music lessons.
“We are hoping students will be grouped in sections and go to those lessons together, but there may well be a time when a student has to go to their lesson on their own,” he said. “We are hoping that will not be at a time when older students are in the halls, but it’s hard to say.”
Students in grades 6-8 will have a separate drop-off and pick-up point at the front of the school so that the students have a minimal distance to travel to get to their rooms, Hammer said. Other grades will be dropped off behind the school building.
Hammer said the district was exploring the possibility of changing traffic flow for Bird and Willard streets. Years ago, both were designated as one-way streets.
The school day will begin at Houlton Middle/High School at 8:02 a.m. Students should not arrive any earlier than 7:30 a.m., Hammer said, and added the ideal thing would be for students to arrive five or 10 minutes before the start of school.
Grades 10-12 will be dismissed from school at 2:16 p.m., while grades 6-9 will be dismissed at 2:30 p.m.
Sixth-graders will also have a separate lunch schedule than the rest of the school and will operate on a more traditional class schedule similar to what it would have been at Houlton Southside School. Grades 7-9 will operate on a hybrid, 50-minute schedule, while grades 10-12 will continue to have a “block” schedule, with different days representing different classes.
Having three different schedules, means the school will have multiple tones throughout the day, instead of just one bell signifying the end of a class period. Hammer acknowledged that transition would take some adjusting for students and staff alike.
Southside School
The impact at Houlton Southside School is not as dramatic.
At Houlton Southside School, students may not arrive to school any earlier than 7:30 a.m., according to Principal Cindy Peterson. Students may enter the building from recess at 7:55 a.m. and are marked tardy if they have not arrived by 8 a.m. Classes start at 8:10 a.m. and the school day ends at 2:15 p.m.
Parents may drop off their kids in the morning in the driveway out front that leads to the staff parking lot. Buses will use the main driveway directly in front of the school.
At the end of the school day, bus drivers pick up their students behind the school at the cafeteria exit doors. Peterson added every parent who comes to the school to pick up their child, must come into the cafeteria to do so.
“Changes consist of having three grade level lunches, where each grade level goes to lunch with their peers,” Peterson said. “There will be two lunch recesses — a third-grade recess and a fourth/fifth-grade combined recess.”
Third-grade classrooms will be located on both floors of the building, along with the 4th and 5th grade classrooms. However, the third-grade classrooms will be self-contained with the same teacher all day, which is similar to how classes were held at HES. Grades 4-5 have multiple teachers for different lessons.
Playground equipment is minimal at Southside, so the district is looking into purchasing some new equipment and will be seeking the help of its Parent-Teacher-Organization for fundraising.
Hammer said the message he wants to drive home with parents is simple — talk to your child.
“We can’t help with things that we don’t know about,” he said. “We have people that can help.”
