Educational Reconfiguration

The Board approved an educational reconfiguration program in December 2012.  Improvements were designed to enhance academic achievement and provide parents with a range of educational options for their children. The District desired to have children feel more connected to their neighborhood schools, provide stronger relationships with the families, increase parent involvement, allow for more flexible educational groupings of students, decrease discipline problems and increase the self-esteem of students.

The reconfigured program supports K-5, K-8 and 6-8 school models.  The K-5 schools offer educational strands that are further enhanced by academy programs at reconfigured 6-8 middle schools.  The K-8 schools provide additional choice to parents and provide greater opportunities to extend select educational programs, such as Dual Language Immersion (DLI) instruction.

Since the Program’s inception in 2013, the District has been able to:

• Reduce overcrowding at elementary schools by adopting a K-5 educational strand and facilities program at eleven school sites
• Convert the prior three junior high schools to 6-8 middle schools that support an academy based instructional program, including the completion of 21st century classroom and lab facilities
• Expand the K-8 instructional program to six K-8 school sites to increase parent choice, including the completion of 21st century science labs at three school sites
• Implement an extended day kindergarten program with improved facilities

The K-8 schools are in their third year of Academy program implementation and the Academic Strand Focus (k-5) and Academy (6-8) programs are now in their fourth academic year of development, and all continue to be the driver of facilities improvements and educational technology integration.  All programs continue to be integrated into the school’s overall educational vision and are in the process of integrating additional enrichment activities related to the academic themes.