Academic focus remains on local middle schools
(Seguin) — The Seguin ISD says it doesn’t plan to ease up on its continued focus of its two middle schools.
This past year, the Seguin ISD Board of Trustees committed to hearing monthly updates from both A.J. Briesemeister and Jim Barnes Middle Schools. A couple of years ago, the district committed to a redesign of the schools’ curriculum and schedule as it worked to improve the academic success at both of those campuses which in the past hadn’t faired so well.
However, this upcoming year will mark year three for the implementation of the Texas Education Agency’s System of Great Schools — Middle School Redesign. The program not only included a high-dosage of tutoring and social emotional wellbeing but included Extending Learning Time and Flex-Fridays which took on a whole different look when compared to a student’s Monday through Thursday schedule.
Although there will still be Flex-Fridays, there will be a change that families can come to expect.
That’s according to Seguin ISD Superintendent Matthew Gutierrez.
“Yes, we are going to continue to keep an emphasis on our secondary campuses especially as we’ve transitioned – although it is still called the STAAR Test, it’s a new test. It’s different. It’s not the same STAAR Test of the year before and so with that continued emphasis, we are looking at how we can continue to see progress at all of our schools but in particular our middle schools and we did see progress in all content areas and so we are very proud of that but what we are finding is that we need more time for math and reading/language arts and that was the feedback that we received from parents and from teachers is they wanted more time to ensure that they could get all of the content in. So, we are not drastically changing the way the Friday looks. It’s still a purposeful Friday. We are just reducing some of the minutes of your Whole Child block, of your Grow Block of your PBL block to be able to build in that time for math and reading,” said Gutierrez.
Dr. Gutierrez says the district will continue to implement the redesign concept and will make the necessary changes so that all students are successful. Meanwhile, parents are encouraged to discuss the school days with their children, particularly their experiences and programs on Fridays.