Dumas School District's 6th and 9th grade students will soon be adjusting to new schools in the 2022-23 school year.
Superintendent Kelvin Gragg announced that in February, DSD administrators presented a recommendation to the board to reorganize the Dumas Junior High School and transition it to a middle school format. This means that the 6th grade will be moved from Reed Elementary to the junior high with grades from 6-8 and the school will be renamed to Dumas Middle School. The 9th grade will be moved to the Dumas High School
“One of the reasons why is because we are having to bus 9th grade students from the Jr. High to the High School to take class, because those classes are only offered at the high school. When you look at the concept of 9-12 high school and 6-8 middle school the disconnect between the 9th grade and 10th grade was greater than it was 6-7th grade,” Superintendent Kelvin Gragg said.
Gragg said according to research, The middle school system allows schools to work directly with middle school students and develop that curriculum. With the Dumas School District it is a logical decision to move the 9th grade to the high school, because students start receiving their credits for graduation and it will be easier for students to make up courses at the high school.
There will be an increase in students at the high school, but the school has empty classes to accommodate the 9th grade. They will have the same course offerings at the high school. Any course that 9th grade students were offered at the junior high they will receive at the high school.
Gragg said the only change students will face is a change in environment from Reed Elementary to the middle school with similar instruction. The change will not affect extracurricular activities and they are looking to restart the beginning band program. The middle school band will have 6th-8th grade students and the high school band will have 9th-12th grade students. With athletics, the teams practice at the high school and the 9th grade students will still participate on the junior high Schedule.
This will be Phase I of a two part program with Phase II transitioning some elementary grades to Reed Elementary to help make room for the state ABC program at Central Elementary. The DSD has an ABC program that is currently out of compliance due to lack of classroom and minimum footage at Central Elementary that is required for the program.
“We are not meeting that because there is no place at central, there is no place to add on to extend it and to make sure we have adequate room. If we are able to move 2nd grade or other grades to free up some needed space for the ABC program. It is unknown at this time what grades will be moved to Reed,” Gragg said. “We have not looked at the lower elementary yet, we want to get Phase I of this reconfiguration done this year and then we will look at our numbers where we are. We definitely know we have got to do something at Central to free up some space for ABC.”
As an administrative team, we are already starting to look at master schedules, we are also starting to look at staffing needs and what we can do in terms of staffing needs. The shift will also help in hiring of new teachers that have certification in elementary education, middle school education and secondary education. Another challenge the district faces is keeping and replacing qualified teachers. Gragg said this is a problem across Arkansas and in other states.
“We are starting the process annually. We have some teachers that are leaving. We have some teachers that are retiring or resigning. This is the time we start to look at change over and starting to replace positions. That is not just a challenge, just not for our school district, but for school districts around Southeast Arkansas and all around the state. We are looking at possibly being able to save some positions by moving the sixth grade to the middle school. We are looking to hopefully absorb some positions, and still service the students,” Gragg said. “This has been something the curriculum and some of the teachers have been asking for a long period of time because it makes so much sense.”
