Stanwood planning new middle school alternative

STANWOOD – The Stanwood-Camano School District next fall will open an alternative middle school, one of few in Snohomish County.

Enrollment for the first year will be limited to 40 seventh- and eighth-grade students, compared with about 150 students at the district’s alternative Lincoln Hill High School.

“One of the things we’ve recognized is often kids end up at the Lincoln Hill doorstop after an unsuccessful ninth-grade year. If we look back, they’ve disengaged from learning” even before that, said Mike Olson, director of school improvement.

Educators plan to discuss the new program during a 6 p.m. school board study session Tuesday at the administration building, 26920 Pioneer Highway. The public is encouraged to attend.

There also is an informational meeting planned for middle-school parents and students at 6:30 p.m. March 6 in the gym at the Church Creek Campus, 7600 272nd St. NW.

Both Lincoln Hill and the new middle school will be relocated next fall to a classroom wing of Stanwood High School’s Church Creek Campus.

But while sharing a building, the programs would be distinct and include separate classrooms and schedules.

The alternative middle school would target specific students who struggle academically, looking at things such as attendance, grades and test scores. Teachers would tailor coursework to students’ needs and abilities.

Only a handful of school districts in Snohomish County offer alternative programs, much less stand-alone schools, for struggling middle-schoolers.

June Shirey heads alternative programs in the Snohomish district, which has offered its middle-level Alternative Learning Center for about 12 years.

Statewide, alternative educators are just starting to focus more on middle-schoolers, said Shirey, who sits on the board of the Washington Association of Learning Alternatives.

Students are struggling through their first burst of adolescence, at about 12 and 13 years old.

“It’s a tough age,” she said.

Other districts in the county also are paying more attention to the same age group.

The Snohomish School District program works with struggling students from its two middle schools, taking them for a half-day before returning them to their school or home for additional coursework.

The goal is to send them back to their middle schools or help them transition to the Snohomish Freshman Campus.

In Edmonds, there’s a similar transitional program called Options. It focuses on helping middle- and high-school students catch up and return to their home schools.

Monroe this school year expanded its alternative Leaders in Learning high school program to include middle-school students.

Northshore also has a middle-school program through its Secondary Academy for Success.

Other large school districts – including Everett and Mukilteo – don’t have specific alternative programs geared to middle-school children.

With few models to follow, Stanwood has largely turned to its new Lincoln Hill principal for his expertise.

Dan Johnston, who took over as principal in the fall, previously was head of an alternative middle- and high-school program in Arizona.

An alternative middle school will require a different approach than a high school, Johnston said.

“The high school student is much more motivated by the thought of graduating and their future and earning credits, whereas the middle-school student is much more focused on what’s happening today and the immediate,” he said.

“So there needs to be something that draws them to engage and perform right there, that day.”

The program will be small enough so that students form close relationships with teachers, who in turn will offer plenty of positive feedback and reinforcement. Schoolwork will be tailored to kids’ abilities. Many may be performing at as low as a third-grade level.

In Arizona, Johnston said, the full-day alternative middle school helped students improve by up to three grade levels per year.

“You don’t want them faced with a situation where they can’t understand everything and disengage,” Johnston said. “As they start to see that they can do it and have success – just like everybody in all walks of life – they enjoy things they’re good at … and we start to see growth.”

An alternative to middle school

Some of the features of a planned alternative middle school in the Stanwood-Camano School District: