Boyceville school board delays decision on moving 6th grade to middle school
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
BOYCEVILLE — The Boyceville Board of Education has delayed making a decision on whether to move the sixth grade from Tiffany Creek Elementary to the middle school, pending a re-survey of fifth grade students.
Tyler Moy, middle school/high school principal, presented the results of a survey he had sent out to parents and students about moving the sixth grade to middle school at the Boyceville Board of Education’s March 9 meeting.
Of the 122 responses Moy had received from parents, nearly 70 percent supported moving the sixth grade from the elementary school to the middle school, which is located in the Boyceville High School building.
If the middle school is moved out of Tiffany Creek Elementary, there are two options: self-contained classrooms with two teachers, or the full middle school option with different teachers for all classes, Moy said.
Comments
During the public comments portion of the meeting, three fifth grade students spoke to the school board and said they did not want to move to the middle school next year.
One student, who identified himself as Easton, said there had been many changes at school in the past few years because of the COVID pandemic and that the fifth grade students were not ready to move to the middle school.
The fifth graders have been looking forward to being leaders for the younger students when the fifth graders became sixth graders, and if the class was moved to the middle school, they would not have that opportunity, Easton said.
Another student, who identified himself as Eli, said the students who are in fifth grade now have not had a normal school year for three years.
Moving to the middle school would change everything about being in school, and the fifth graders, who will be sixth graders next year, will also lose their recess, he said.
Getting outside to move around is helpful, Eli said.
The third student, who identified himself as David Maves, noted that the fifth grade is the largest class at Tiffany Creek Elementary.
Maves said he was not ready for middle school and wanted to stay at the elementary school one more year.
There were problems with e-mail addresses for sending the survey home to allow students to fill them out, so the survey was sent to the fifth graders at school, Moy said.
The parent survey covered all parents from third grade to fifth grade, he noted.
One parent in the audience, who did not identify himself, was concerned about peer pressure at school, or influences from other students, in the replies from the fifth grade students to the survey.
Developmental advantage
Developmentally, it is good for the students to have three years at the middle school before going on to the high school, Moy said.
More time in middle school positions the students to be successful in high school, he said.
But is moving the students to middle school now the appropriate time? asked one parent.
With three years of COVID, the students have not had normalcy, he said.
The students are worried about the structure of middle school, especially since there has been no structure during the years of COVID, the parent said.
One parent said he coaches students, and they are “not where they need to be” and are “physically and mentally exhausted.”
“The kids are worried sick,” the parent said, adding that the students should be able to take the survey without peer pressure.
The students are having problems with social and emotional turmoil, said DeeAnn Thompson, principal at Tiffany Creek Elementary.
The elementary school has one counselor for 400 students, while the middle school has one counselor for a little over 100 students, she said.
Moving the sixth grade to the middle school would give students more access to a counselor, Thompson said.
Enough time?
Would the teachers and other school staff have time to plan a transition now? asked Amber Carlsrud, school board member.
In sixth grade, the students have B Team, but in middle school, they have band, sports and student council, noted Rochelle Olson, sixth grade teacher.
The sixth grade would have to be self-contained in the middle school at this point, she said.
Teachers and students would have to do more work talking about focus and doing more transitions to help the students get acclimated, Olson said.
Does summer leave enough time to work on transition? asked one parent.
The classes would be self-contained, and even though there would technically not be a recess at the middle school, the teachers could arrange the schedule so the students could take breaks outside, Olson said.
Making a decision now would limit the school district to the option of having self-contained classrooms in the middle school for sixth grade because there is not enough time at this point in the school year to get the students ready for middle school, said Nick Kaiser, school district administrator.
Re-survey
If the school board delays making a decision on whether to move the sixth grade, that would leave time to re-survey the fifth grade students and would give the school board time to think about the issue, said Tim Sempf, president of the Board of Education.
Moy said he could send the surveys to the students’ school e-mail addresses and school staff can make sure that students know how to log into their e-mail at home.
It would not hurt to re-survey the students so there is more input, said Erik Evenson, school board member.
The Boyceville Board of Education agreed to delay making a decision on moving the sixth grade to the middle school to allow time to re-survey the fifth grade students and to give the school board more time to consider the decision.
Other business
In other business, the Boyceville Board of Education:
• Learned that Boyceville High School will have three co-valedictorians for the Class of 2022: Shiloh Wheeldon, Ella Holden and Libby Bygd.
• Learned that the salutatorian for the Class of 2022 is Harper Olson. Other students with a grade point average of 3.9 or above are Jacob Granley and Ira Bialzik.
• Learned that the Technical Excellence Scholarship is awarded to Torrie Bland. Alternates are Trent Peterson, Jonathan Zebro and Dawson McRoberts.
• Approved a request for retirement from Melody Schmidt as the elementary food service secretary and substitute caller. Schmidt has been employed by the school district for about 30 years.
• Approved a request for retirement from Terri Peterson as the elementary school secretary. Peterson has been employed by the school district for more than 30 years.
• Approved the resignation of Blaine Leslie as the middle school wrestling coach and assistant varsity football coach. Leslie has a young family and would like to spend more time with his children, Kaiser said.
• Approved the resignation of Caleb Dotseth as the middle school football coach and middle school boys’ basketball coach. Dotseth changed shifts at his place of employment, from third shift to daytime shift, Kaiser said.
• Approved the resignation of Brian Roemhild as the middle school football coach and middle school boys’ basketball coach. According to his letter of resignation, both of Roemhild’s boys are now in high school, which will make it impossible for him to coach middle school football and middle school basketball without missing some of his sons’ games.
• Approved hiring Teralyn Buss as the special education/elementary food service secretary.
• Approved hiring Erika Sudbrink as the elementary school secretary. Sudbrink also has served as a bus driver for the school district, as a para-educator and has been working as a substitute for Peterson as necessary for the past few years.
• Approved a request for retirement from Rita Traxler as the middle school and high school library aide.
• Approved the school calendar for the 2022-2023 school year. One day has been added in September and a half-day has been added in April for staff development time, Kaiser said. Transition days will be August 30 and August 31.
• Approved applications for nine students who have applied for the Early College Credit program or Start College Now for the fall of 2022. The high school students can only register after the university or technical college students have registered, so the exact number of students who will be participating will not be known until sometime during the summer.
• Approved the Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA) contract for 2022-2023. There were no changes to the contract.
• Approved changes to the “fall opening plan for 2021” regarding COVID-19 protocols, such as changes for isolation and quarantine.
• Accepted a $300 donation from the Boyceville Knights of Columbus Tootsie Roll Drive for the special education program.
• Recognized the annual disbursement from the Merlyn and Shirley Anne (MASA) Fund (Merlyn and Shirley Jones) in the amount of $3,282.14. The MASA fund is a fund of the Community Foundation of Dunn County. Merlyn and Shirley started the fund to support education initiatives related to field trips, school assemblies, teacher mini-grants and student philanthropy.
• Accepted two grants from 3M Gives Wisconsin and 3M Menomonie totaling $4,636.56 to be used towards the purchase of new science lab tables and stools for the upper elementary grades.
