Staff prepare Moscow Junior High for middle school switch

Students are gone for the summer, lockers have been emptied and dozens of boxes have been packed with textbooks, laboratory equipment and classroom decorations.

The end of the school day Wednesday was the end of an era for Moscow Junior High School, which will reopen its doors to students Aug. 29 as Moscow Middle School.

Absent next school year will be the ninth-graders who are moving up to Moscow High School - but in their place will be hundreds of sixth-graders who will no longer be elementary school students.

The switch to a true middle-level setting means the school is being reorganized so sixth- and seventh-graders will attend most of their classes in respective hallways on the top floor, while eighth-grade and science classes will meet in rooms on the ground level.

MJHS staff gathered at 8:30 a.m. Thursday to begin the moving process, although many of them started packing a couple weeks ago, Principal Kevin Hill said. In addition to the 10 staff moving to MHS and the eight total staff moving to MMS from the district's other schools, seven staff are moving rooms within the building.

Math teacher Kathy Dickerson is one of them. She graded student papers late Thursday morning in her nearly empty classroom on the second floor of MJHS. Moving crews had already carried her set of student desks downstairs into her new classroom in the eighth-grade wing.

Even though she will no longer be teaching freshmen, she said she believes grade reconfiguration is in the best interest of the sixth-grade students who will soon call MMS their home turf. She said she has taught the sixth grade and feels they developmentally are better off in a middle school rather than elementary school setting. It will also provide them with more academic extracurricular opportunities, like the MATHCOUNTS program that she coaches.

Dickerson said she had considered retiring after this year but had a great group of students and started to look forward to the future of MJHS, soon to become MMS.

"It's exciting to be at the beginning of something," she said. "How often do you get to be there at the beginning of a school?"

After the carpet in her former classroom is replaced, a sixth-grade teacher will move in with his or her own set of student desks, textbooks and classroom supplies.

In addition to the various staff moves within and between buildings, MMS will be outfitted with refurbished lockers with built-in locks and new furniture to replace some of what is moving to MHS, Hill said.

"There's going to be a lot of new technology and furniture - just a lot of change overall," he said, adding that some new ideas won't be implemented until the school year begins. For example, MMS will be a more community-oriented school than in the past, and an outdoor garden classroom is also a possibility.

The moving process Thursday was going quicker than anticipated, he said.

Many staff members collaborated in teams, as some had heavier moving workloads than others.

Seventh-grade science teacher Ned Lawton and MHS science teacher Mark Shipley helped ninth-grade science teacher Ken Berger pack up his classroom materials in preparation for his move to the high school. They still had quite a bit to put into boxes, but Berger had much more than just textbooks.

"There are a lot of materials to move," he said. "Moving an entire science curriculum over makes it difficult."

Miniature human skeletons rested in a cardboard box as the teachers turned their attention to a set of miniature greenhouses on a nearby countertop.

Berger said he's excited to teach at the high school, but added that "it's hard to leave the junior high because it's so enjoyable here."

Dickerson said she has appreciated the teamwork and organization of all those involved in the reconfiguration process.

She said Hill has put "an incredible amount of time into making sure this goes smoothly," especially because he has to work with both incoming and outgoing teachers, in addition to those who are staying at MMS.

Hill's name is the last on a painted shield created by three outgoing freshmen, Stephen Hullin, Braxton Klas and Gush Nash. The shield, which features the words "MJHS 1959 to 2012" and the names of each of the school's eight principals over the years, will be displayed in the MMS multipurpose room starting this summer.

"We had a student play 'Taps' for the end of Moscow Junior High School," Hill said. "We're going to call it Moscow Middle School from here on out."

Holly Bowen can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 239, or by email to hbowen@dnews.com. Follow her on Twitter: @DailyNewsHolly