My oldest dd is in 5th grade and will go to middle school next school year (this August). We live in an established neighborhood where there has been A LOT of new growth to the south of us. There is a new middle school <6 years old about a mile and half south of our neighborhood and the elementary school that she attends has funneled 100% of the students to this school since it opened. Just last week our school board sends a notice that they are looking at boundary lines for this middle school as it is becoming overcrowded. They are looking at splitting the area for my kids elementary school and sending kids that live north of a certain street to a middle school that is 3 miles north of our home (this is the school that this elementary went to before the new one opened). The problem is that only 25% of the kids at the elementary live in this area and 75% live south of it SOOOOO dd and 15 other kids will go to the north middle school while 73 kids will go to the south middle school. That is a very small number in my mind only 11 girls and 5 boys from the 5th grade class. My dd is upset about this because most of her friends live 2 block south of us and get to go with the majority of their classmates to the other middle school. I know this type of thing probably happens a lot in larger cities (I came from a town of 500 so this was really not an issue for me) but why couldn't they have given us more notice or revised the boundaries better to include MORE kids in the north school. I have 3 other dd and soon a ds so this will happen to all of them. Our neighborhood is right next door to the elementary school but unfortuantely famlies aren't moving into our area but rather in the area south where they can buy a new home for about the same price as the existing homes here. Someone who has experienced this with their kids please tell me she will be OK and will make new friends easily.

By Melanie on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 09:49 am:

I can't speak from personal experience, but we will go through something similar when it's time to send the kids to middle school. I live in a mountain community and we have our own elementary school. It is very small. There are only 13 kids in my son's entire 2nd grade class. When it is time to go to middle school, they are sent to the much larger school with 600 kids. A number of our students are sent to private schools instead of the public high school, so the number of friends the kids go to middle school with is cut down even further.

I have talked to other parents who have already gone through the transition and I really haven't heard of any problems with it. The kids seem to adjust very well for the most part.

That is a huge bummer if that change goes through. I'll keep my fingers crossed that it doesn't happen.

By Texannie on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 09:58 am:

This happens in our schools too. If you make it sound traumatic, your kids will focus on that. Bring out the positive..they are really lucky, they will still have their friends from the old school (can have play dates, sports ect with them) and they will get to meet a whole new set of friends. Plus in middle school, you are changing classes and having new groups in each class and the only time you really get to visit is at lunch.

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 02:35 pm:

We live in the middle of our town. My kids went to an elementary school 2 miles north of us. For middle school, there is one middle school which is very close to the elementary school and one middle school that is 2.5 miles south of us. The kids who live close to Pigeon River go to Urban. The kids who live in our neck of the woods go to Horace Mann. Both of my kids had some friends who went to Urban and some friends who went to Horace Mann. They both have easily made new friends.

I don't think any Pigeon River kids go to Farnsworth, which is the third middle school.

So, 15 or so elementary schools funnel down to three middle schools and then to 2 high schools. I'm sure there are a lot of friends who end up at different schools. Since we have school choice, Sarah could have gone to either high school. She chose to go to S., since that's where most of her friends were going. She is quite happy. I'm happy too, since her best friend from church goes there too and we have a nice carpooling thing going on. That friend also has a sister my younger dd's age, who is also in band, so this carpooling thing can go on all throughout high school! Yay!

By Cat on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 02:45 pm:

The same thing will be happening here, but won't effect either of my ds's. However, we still don't know where Robin will be going to middle school next year. What they've done here is the three ele schools that are local (within 5 miles) are going to become K-6 grade school to help with the overcrowding of the middle school out where we live. There are about 5 other ele schools in the district (all about 10-15 miles south of us) and two middle schools in that area--but they're all staying the way they are--K-5 for ele and 6,7,8 for middle. WELL, (this is going somewhere! lol) Robin (my 5th grader) goes to one of the ele schools south of us because he's in a smaller classroom (only 12 kids--local school couldn't handle him because he couldn't handle 25 kids in his class). So he can't go to that ele next year because they don't have 6th grade. None of the local ele schools have the classroom he needs. The local middle school does, but they won't have 6th grade. There is rumor that they might start his classroom at one of the local ele schools, but the district doesn't have the money for that and I can't see anywhere where they're going to find it. The only option at this point (without them adding his class to a local ele) is for him to go to one of the middle schools south of us for 6th grade and then for 7th grade he'll have to change schools (again) and come to the local middle school. I'm NOT happy about that. If it comes down to that I'll ask the district to allow him to stay at the middle school he started at. Unless of course we decide to move after dh retires next summer, and then all of this will be a moot point! lol Anyway, I feel for you and your dd, but know you're not alone. It happens in areas everywhere where there's a lot of growth (like where I live). I also grew up in a town of 500 and we didn't even have a middle or high school in my town. We were bussed to the next town over where there were four towns that combined to make one HS of about 800 students. Yeah, I grew up in the boonies! lol (you don't want to know what dh calls it! rofl) Hugs to both you and your dd.