Push came to shove

Middle schools had become congested caldrons of pubescence. A building boom allows room for more human contact of the meaningful kind.

By JOHN BALZ, LOGAN D. MABE and JOSH ZIMMER
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 8, 2002

WESTCHASE -- It's so quiet. Not library silent, but definitely down a few decibels from the typical middle school cafeteria.

Davidsen Middle School principal Becky Kaskeski patrols the half-filled lunchroom passing out candy bars and hugs to students who are doing well with the school fundraiser. Sure, about half the kids are dining on Davidsen's airy outdoor patio. But that's not what accounts for the eerie peace.

Kaskeski has about 300 fewer students this year, thanks to the opening of the Farnell Middle School up the road. For the first time since Davidsen opened two years ago, the school is partly empty. With a capacity for 1,237 students, Davidsen had 1,195 on the benchmark 20th day of school.

With the school district opening schools like a kid opening presents on Christmas morning, middle schools are finally getting relief after explosive enrollment growth. Beneficiaries include Benito Middle School in New Tampa (relieved by Liberty Middle) and Walker Middle School in Odessa (helped by Martinez Middle).

Buchanan Middle School in Lake Magdalene also came out a winner. The school, undergoing major renovations, lost 267 students to Liberty and 48 to Martinez, leaving it with 896 students this year. Buchanan's capacity is 1,120.

The difference at Davidsen has been profound, Kaskeski said.

"You can actually move through the aisles," she said. "We can actually converse with the kids, talk with them and get to know them more. That's been the best thing for me and the teachers. And the kids feel it, too."

Assistant principal JoAnn Johnson said discipline problems have decreased because "there's less chance of a student getting in another student's personal space. The frustration level of the students is lower."

Then there are the psychological advantages.

"You get more on a personal level with them," Johnson said. "And that's important to middle school students, that the adults they see every day know something about them."

Away with portables

Barbara Hancock might have been the happiest principal in New Tampa when the school year started last month.

It wasn't so much what Benito Middle School had as what it didn't -- those brown portable classrooms out back.

"It's always nice to downsize," she said.

For the first time since its inaugural year, 6-year-old Benito can teach all its students in permanent classrooms. Last week's 20th-day count showed 1,111 of the school's 1,314 slots are filled -- about 85 percent of its capacity.

The extra room has boosted teacher morale, decreased disciplinary problems and eased hallway congestion.

"The trains run smoother; the gears mesh together better," said Bobby Smith, Benito's assistant principal.

The new Liberty Middle School in Tampa Palms has sucked away Benito's excess students.

Last year Benito had 29 portables next to the athletic track that housed close to 800 students. Total enrollment was more than 1,700.

Now that Liberty is open, only two trailers are in use at Benito. One is a health care clinic; the other is a special classroom for students with discipline problems. Every week or so, crews haul the empty ones away, leaving chewed-up grassy rectangles in their place.

The extra outdoor space will eventually be used for PE classes, what it was intended for.

Smith said attendance has climbed to 97 percent, slightly above the district average of 96 percent. Discipline infractions have taken a 90 percent dive in the opening weeks.

Some teachers liked the trailers, similar to one-room schoolhouses complete with plumbing and Internet access. Others didn't.

Now the issue is academic, in more ways than one.

It no longer takes a village

They called it the Village.

For years the 17 drab portables at Walker Middle School formed a world unto itself. The school was so crowded, there was no other place to put the sixth-graders and their teachers.

But a village needs people. And thanks to a huge drop in enrollment from the opening of Martinez and Farnell, the village is gone.

Teachers and administrators don't miss it.

"You were never able to step out of your classroom and interact with the teachers next door," principal Wynne Tye said.

Tye, who is in her first full year at the helm after coming to Walker in March, wears the excitement over her downsized school on her sleeve. So does everyone else, it seems, including students.

Classroom sizes remain the same. But changes are obvious.

There's less pushing in the hallways. Teachers are having an easier time talking to one another. For the first time in a long while, all students have their own lockers.

Tye, formerly assistant principal at Ben Hill Middle School, says she can hold monthly meetings where teachers have more opportunity to speak and receive feedback. Staffers have more time for the children, including those who need extra attention. Lower enrollment means Tye can schedule one Sept. 11 remembrance ceremony for the entire school -- simply because everyone can fit in the gymnasium all at once.

Walker was built to serve 1,150 students. Tye thinks the transformation from 1,615 students to 940 students could make Walker, already an A school, even better.

"We're a small family now," she said. "When you have half that number you can just be more personally involved with the kids."

There are downsides to everything. One of them involves Khrystyne Ely.

Khrystyne lost daily contact with a good friend who, like hundreds of others, was farmed out to the new schools. Martinez took in most of them. Farnell accepted about 70, Tye said.

Khrystyne, 12, didn't realize her friend would be leaving for Martinez until days before the school year began.

"I thought she was going to be here," she said. "I did cry, actually."

Walker also lost some of its best athletes, she added. But on the bright side, "it's not so crowded and nobody gets shoved," she said. "There's a lot less talk and a lot more learning. I think it's a lot better."

Working with students suddenly became a lot easier, said sixth-grade science teacher Monica Ode, who has taught here since Walker opened in 1997.

Unlike her portable classroom, her current space is built for experiments, with special sinks and faucets, a storage room and better safety equipment. Last year, she sometimes taught with a computer simulator. This year, she plans to do more hands-on projects.

"This is by far the best year I've had," Ode said. "I look forward to coming to class every day."

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