Salem Saltonstall Middle School Grades Shift Debate Gains Steam
SALEM, MA — A two-hour Salem School Committee of the Whole discussion on the potential shifting of middle school grades from Saltonstall School to Collins School in Salem focused mostly on how to best make the transition to one middle school for the district, rather than if it should be made, on Monday night.
While a vote on whether to move the grades out of the K-8 school is not tentatively set for until Nov. 18, a consensus appeared to form around the plan Superintendent Steve Zrike brought to the School Committee to move the 140 students in grades 6-8 to the 600-student Collins Middle School.
Zrike cited equity, educational and social reasons behind the proposal with the difficulty in replicating the offerings of the bigger Collins School at the much smaller Saltonstall.
"It has nothing to do with adults who have given up on kids," Zrike said on Monday night. "Because I think that school is fully committed to giving the middle schoolers what they need. But their hands are tied. There's only so much you can do with 140 kids in a middle school.
"Middle school students deserve so much more. It's not a souped-up elementary. But sometimes when I go there I do feel like there they are (treated like) souped-up elementary students. The kids will tell you that too. I know they are not happy about their school (grades) closing. But they talk about how they don't feel like they have to step up and be more independent."
Zrike had previously cited data showing that middle school students had higher rates of absenteeism and more discipline issues at Saltonstall than Collins in recent years. Mayor and School Committee Chair Dominick Pangallo reiterated the data for the COW meeting.
"This is not because it's a family school or an underperforming school," Zrike said. "This is what I think gives us the best chance to serve middle schoolers for years to come."
Zrike said at the last School Committee meeting that it would be "educational malpractice" to delay the decision into future years if it's in the best interest of students now and that a decision should be made sooner rather than later as to ensure this is not a "lost year" at the school.
The question that the School Committee appeared less certain about was whether to make the transition a "phased-in" one with students currently in sixth or seventh grades able to stay at Saltonstall through eighth grade or go with the "rip-the-Band-Aid" approach of moving all students to Collins starting next fall.
School Committee Beth Ann Cornell cited a teacher survey that showed that 23 of the 27 respondents supported moving the grades and "pulling the plug right away," with even some parents who opposed closing the grades saying that it might be better to move everyone immediately rather than leave grades back in a prolonged transition.
"I think the parents need to hear that in that building overwhelmingly the teachers believe that the middle school is not serving kids and that we should not have it anymore," she said. "That's a really compelling argument."
She said some of those who oppose consolidating middle school students at Collins may be fostering "myths" about the Collins experience.
"It is concerning to me that there are members of our public school community who believe that the students are better at Salts, that the families are more productive at Salts, that there are fights every day at Collins, that bullying is out of control at the school, that the class sizes are smaller at Saltonstall," she said. "All of that stuff is being perpetuated inside of that school community and has nothing to do with this building (Collins) or the experiences that families are having here.
"Which is not to say that some families don't have terrible experiences here. Of course, kids have good and bad experiences everywhere. But that was really frustrating to me."
Zrike said all data metrics the district uses suggest that students at Collins "right now, are feeling more connected to their school" than those at Saltonstall.
"I do feel like our sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders do feel like they belong here more," Zrike said. "I wouldn't say it's perfect and we haven't gotten to where we want to be. But the groundwork is done.
"We talked about when was the right time to recommend this phase out of Saltonstall for middle school grades. We didn't think a year ago Collins was ready because a lot was in flux and a new leadership team had come in. Now, after year two, we think by year three, which will be next year, they will be ready to introduce 140 new kids here."
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at X/Twitter:
