QUIT BUILDING MIDDLE SCHOOLS?

TOP EDUCATION OFFICIAL FLOATS IDEA TO LEGISLATORS

John Sanko
News Capitol Bureau
Rocky Mountain News
12-10-98

Colorado school districts would save money and might improve education if they stopped building middle schools, the state's education commissioner said Wednesday.

Commissioner William Moloney caught legislators and state Board of Education members off guard by suggesting it was time to revisit the concept of elementary schools that teach kindergarten through eighth grade. Most school districts now have middle schools or junior highs as a transition between grade schools and senior high schools.

``Don't misconstrue this,'' Moloney said. ``It's not an issue of abolishing existing middle schools. That would be wasteful. But when we have an enormous financial burden ahead of us in new construction, you just have to look at other options.''

He noted Maryland projected a 27 percent savings through such a change in land, construction and operating expenses.

``Historically, it's what America was,'' Moloney said. ``It really comes down to the things that parents value most - intimacy, the basics, control. Stop and think. It's common sense.

``If your child is known by every single teacher in the building, if you have a relationship of nine years duration, if you have that kind of focus and intensity, is that not better than when your children are sent to a more distant school with larger numbers?''

The comments came as lawmakers and Board of Education members discussed a request for $112.6 million in additional money next year. Lawmakers won't vote on the funding until next year.

Moloney stressed that he was tossing out an idea for discussion, not seeking legislation. Rep. Gayle Berry, R-Grand Junction, said the proposal raised more questions than answers, but agreed it deserved study.

``It sure would be cheaper,'' said Phil Fox, deputy director of the Colorado Association of School Executives. ``Mainly, you don't have to build a middle school.''

Fox said Colorado schools need $1.5 billion to $2 billion to build schools at all levels. He said some school districts in Colorado, principally the rural ones, already have K-through-8 grade schools.

A few schools in the Denver area also have K-8 schools. But the nation long ago accepted the concept that middle schools were necessary, ``ostensibly on grounds that kids 12 and 13 have unusual discipline problems - middle school kids are usually thought of as being unruly, uncooperative, hard-headed and undisciplined,'' Fox said.