BEVERLY — The new middle school the city is hoping to build could include a new class — fifth-graders.
School and city officials are contemplating a proposal to move grade five out of the elementary schools and into the renovated and expanded middle school that is being planned at the former Memorial Middle School on Cabot Street.
The grade five-through-eight middle school model has been recommended by a committee assembled by Superintendent Marie Galinski to study the long-range use of school facilities for pre-kindergarten through grade eight. The School Committee will hold an informational meeting on the proposal Dec. 7 and is scheduled to vote on it on Dec. 14.
"I think it's a good plan," Galinski said. "It's a good, long-range solution to some of the issues we've been dealing with."
The proposed new model is being timed with a plan to renovate and expand the former Memorial Middle School into the city's middle school of the future. The city intends to file a "statement of interest" with the Massachusetts School Building Authority by a Jan. 11 deadline for seeking state aid to help pay for the project.
Construction would not begin for at least four years, but Mayor Bill Scanlon said the city's application would be "more meaningful" if it includes the fifth-grade plan.
"If we don't describe to them what we plan to do, we're bound to have problems," he said.
The new school would have a lower middle school for fifth- and sixth-graders and an upper middle school for seventh- and eighth-graders. The fifth- and sixth-graders would be taught by two-person teams, while the seventh- and eighth-graders would be taught by four-person teams.
The school would replace Briscoe Middle School, an 88-year-old building that currently houses nearly 1,000 students in grades six through eight. Briscoe would be sold.
The facilities committee has also recommended turning Hannah School into an early childhood center for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes and redistricting elementary students among the four remaining elementary schools. But Galinski said only the middle school proposal is being considered at this point.
"There are many concerns around closing elementary schools," she said. "That's not even a discussion item right now. We do need a middle school. That's the most imminent project."
'More appropriate programming'
Galinski said several Massachusetts school districts have a grade five-to-eight middle school configuration, including Swampscott. She said the move would allow for "more appropriate social/emotional programming" for fifth-graders as they enter puberty, and for sixth-graders to be paired with fifth-graders who are more like them.
"Sixth-graders are not like seventh- and eighth-graders," she said.
School Committee Vice President Maria Decker, who chaired the committee that recommended the proposal, said the change has many advantages, including allowing fifth-graders to participate in extracurricular activities like band and chorus and providing them with daily science instruction.
The move would also free up space at the elementary schools, which Galinski said are "bursting at the seams." That would create room for the expansion of special education programs and allow some students to stay in Beverly rather than being sent to more costly out-of-district programs, she said.
"We'd have to build the building bigger (to accommodate fifth-graders), but in general there would be cost savings if we could bring students back from special education placements," Galinski said.
Scanlon said no one knows at this point what the middle school would cost, but he estimated it around half the cost of the $80 million high school. Including fifth-graders would increase construction costs by about 20 percent, he said.
The facilities planning committee included Decker, Briscoe Principal Matthew Poska, Ayers Ryal Side Elementary School Principal Susan Charochak, Beverly High Athletic Director James Coffey, and residents George Binns and Heike Gibson.
Binns, a former teacher, said fifth-graders would benefit from the middle school team-teaching approach.
"To my thinking, fifth-graders would do better with subject-oriented teachers than with the generalists you tend to have in the elementary schools," he said.
The School Committee contemplated voting on the plan at its meeting last week but held off when some residents expressed concern that the public did not know about the proposal.
Decker defended the process, saying she gave reports on the plan to the School Committee in February and June and has talked with constituents about the idea. Officials set up an informational meeting, scheduled for Dec. 7 at 7 p.m. in the Briscoe cafeteria, after some residents asked for more information.
"There seems to be a population in the city that isn't aware of it," Decker said.
Staff writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2675 or by email at pleighton@salemnews.com.
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