Parsippany school district addresses middle school changes

PARSIPPANY – The Parsippany-Troy Hills School District is making several changes to the 2015-16 middle school program, and the district has attempted to answer the public’s questions after a petition was circulated that stated arts classes were being cut.

The number of periods for district’s two middle schools - grades six through eight - will drop from nine to eight and the school day will be extended by nine minutes, running from 8 a.m. to 2:46 p.m.

Under the current schedule, there are nine periods in the day, all 40 minutes long. Next year under the new system, students will have seven 50-minute periods plus a 30-minute lunch.

A major change will come with reading and writing. Currently, all grades take 40 minutes daily of language arts and 40 minutes daily of stand-alone reading and writing.

Superintendent Scott Rixford said this time combined is essentially reading and writing time, at 400 minutes per week.

Under the new plan, sixth grade will add an additional 100 minutes of time to reading and writing due to the length of the new periods. Seventh grade will have five 50-minute language arts classes and three 50-minute stand-alone reading and writing, keeping the same 400 minutes as before, with more of a focus on language arts.

Eighth grade is where the biggest alteration will come. Language arts will remain the same, but stand-alone writing will only be mandatory when additional support for an individual student is necessary. All other students will have a total of 250 minutes, all language arts, unless they choose to take stand-alone reading and writing as an elective. That option would provide an additional 150 minutes per week, bringing the number back to 400 minutes of reading and writing.

“A large number of the public still wanted to take writing classes in eighth grade,” Rixford said. “So we’ve additionally made it available as an elective for students where additional help is not needed.”

So should a student or parent choose, Rixford said, the same total amount of instruction time for reading and writing courses will remain the same or increase each year.

It’s noted in a Frequently Asked Questions document posted this week on the district website that reading and writing skills would still additionally be put to use in other classes like history and science.

Rixford said the middle school’s schedule has been a concern for members of the Board of Education dating back years before he became Parsippany’s superintendent in July.

Prior to the start of this academic year, Rixford said the Board of Education looked at other schools to determine best practice, but the end result lacked a consensus, so they held off an additional school year to make the changes.

“You need a whole year to do it right,” Rixford said. “I’m hopeful the Frequently Asked Questions page clears this up by addressing all the information and misinformation. And we will continue to update the FAQ page if additional questions are asked.”

Last week, a petition appeared on Change.org titled “Overturn decision to cancel our children's Fine Arts Programs,” which netted 442 signatures.

“No cuts have been made to the student of arts, and I’m not even sure how [the creator of the petition] defines what fine arts are,” Rixford said. “We did not cut art, it’s just no longer mandatory. If a student wants to take art, they can actually take more of it now.”

Currently, art is available for a total of 90 hours – one marking period per year – through the three years of middle school. The new program offers an additional marking period in seventh grade, bumping the total to 120 potential hours of art.

The Change.org page was created on Monday, Dec. 1, and by Friday, in a post titled “Victory,” the page said due to the signatures the decision had been overturned.

Rixford said this simply isn’t true. He said nothing has changed, and there was no meeting on the subject between Dec. 1 when the petition was created and Dec. 5 when it was posted that the decision was overturned.

“Nothing occurred between the first and fifth,” Rixford said.

Additional changes to next year’s schedule include:

•The new program allows eighth grade students to enroll in both band and choir, which they cannot do under the current schedule.

•Students will also survey the available world languages in sixth grade, and choose a focus of either Spanish, French, or Italian starting in seventh grade.

•Physical education and health will remain at 200 hours in eighth grade, but be reduced to 150 hours in sixth and seventh. Students may choose physical education or health as an elective to increase the time.

•A mandatory computers course will move from sixth to seventh grade.

The changes announced only affect the middle school, and no curriculum alterations are currently scheduled for elementary or high school.

“The Board is looking at enhancements to elementary, but certainly not as comprehensive as middle school,” Rixford said, adding he didn’t anticipate changes to the high school curriculum unless they were state mandated.

For parents looking to learn more about the changes, the middle school principals and the director of secondary education will hold an information session in early January.

Staff Writer Michael Izzo: 973-428-6636; mizzo@dailyrecord.com