Moon Principal Discusses Upcoming Middle School Changes

Principal Melissa Heasley said that while curriculum for fifth-graders entering the next year will be more rigorous, students will be up to the task.

Heasley spoke last night about upcoming changes to the district’s middle school before an auditorium filled with parents and teachers. Next fall, the district will open the doors of its renovated middle school, which formerly served as its high school.

Earlier this year, the district opened an 186,011-square-foot, , shuttering the former building for the renovation. The current middle school is scheduled to be demolished next fall. 

The reopened building will come with a number of changes for middle school students. Fifth-graders, who now attend Moon elementary schools, will be housed alongside sixth-, seventh- and eight-graders in the facility.

“I walk through the [new] building on a week-by-week basis,” Heasley said. “And now I see it coming to life. It’s really exciting.”

The building will house fifth- and sixth-graders on the first floor and seventh- and eighth-graders on the second. Each grade will remain consolidated in classrooms clustered together and each grade will have its own set of restrooms and computer lab.  

All students will share “encore” class facilities, divided by grade level, where they will receive instruction in areas such as fine arts, physical education and music. The new building will also feature a television studio and manufacturing facility. 

“What we are going to have now at the middle school are programs that would feed into those [high school] programs,” Heasley said. “They are different opportunities from what we have now.”

Fifth-graders will be grouped in teams of 50 students for core class subjects. Two teachers will be assigned to each team, one for language arts and social studies and another for math and science. Teachers will attend to classes of roughly 25 students while teaching those core subjects. 

“At fourth grade, what they have is a self-contained classroom,” Heasley said. “And here we’re keeping in mind that we have a middle school philosophy of teaming.

“We are raising the level of rigor for fifth grade,” she said. “It’s a give and take, but I personally believe they will be up to the challenge.” 

While schedules for seventh and eighth graders remain largely unchanged in the new building, sixth-graders will be grouped in teams of 75 for core subjects. Three teachers will be assigned to each team.

Sixth-graders will also have the earliest lunch in the building, eating at about 10:30 a.m. Heasley said snacks may be provided for students at the end of the day. Each grade will eat lunch together.

“It’s a big puzzle that has more than one way that it can fit,” said Heasley in between fielding questions from parents at the event. “We’re making it work the best we can.” 

Other notable changes to the new middle school: 

• The natatorium pool has been filled and the facility will be converted into the building’s new library.

• The former wrestling room will be converted into a fitness room for the school’s physical education program. 

• The new main entrance will be located on the south side of the building and will feature a newly constructed façade.