Grade Configuration Changes Set for August 2013

Specific details of the plan are as follows:

The existing middle schools (Liberty Middle and South Valley Middle), which currently accommodate students in grades 6 and 7, and the two junior high schools (Liberty Junior High and South Valley Junior High) which include students in grades 8 and 9, will all become “true” middle schools for students in grades 6-8.  This means that in August of 2013, Liberty will have a total of four middle schools, each housing students from grades 6, 7 and 8.

The district's current two high schools (Liberty High and Liberty North High), which currently include students in grades 10 - 12, will each become a more traditional 9-12 grade high school.  To make room for the 9th grade students at Liberty High School, the top two floors of Blue Jay Tower will be utilized during the day for AP and dual credit classes.  At Liberty North High School, a total of 6 modular units (12 classrooms) will be moved from the South Valley Campus to Liberty North to handle the increased student population.  Both high schools will eventually require the construction of additional classroom space to accommodate the increase in student population.

Moving 9th grade students to the high schools provides many benefits, according to Superintendent, Mike Brewer.  Among the advantages is an opportunity for cost-savings in the area of transportation, since many students are currently being shuttled between the schools for many activities.

"Moving forward with our grade configuration plan also reduces the number of transitions our students have to make as they progress toward graduation." Brewer said.  "Allowing the middle school and high school staff members an extra year to get to know the students is a very positive aspect of this plan."

Along with the cost-savings and reduced number of transitions, district leaders also feel strongly that this change will benefit students academically.  Upper-level courses will be much more accessible for high school freshmen and simply having them on campus of a high school can provide a wide range of academic and extracurricular advantages.

"Some of our freshmen forget that their coursework counts toward college and having them physically on campus will help them realize that their grades count toward their high school GPA." said Brewer.

Another aspect of the grade configuration plan that has been well received by student, staff and parents is the possibility of implementing a “school feeder system” where elementary schools feed to a specific middle school, which then feeds to a particular high school.  While Superintendent Brewer cannot promise a pure feeder system K - 12, he feels strongly a feeder system could exist from grades 6 – 12.  He also pledges that the district will work to implement feeder patterns that increase the ease of communication and one that makes transitions for students as smooth as possible.

To make the grade configurations work, boundary adjustments at the middle school will need to take place to distribute the student population.  Slight elementary boundary changes may occur as well.  It is the District’s desire that the high school boundaries will be impacted very little.

"We feel good about how balanced our high school boundaries currently are and also understand how passionate families are about the high school their children attend," Brewer said.  "It is our desire to leave the high school boundaries as close to untouched as possible."

A boundary committee will be formed in the coming months with new boundaries expected to be announced by the summer of 2012.