A new place to learn
Burton’s new middle school welcomes students
Traffic flowed very smoothly Tuesday morning along Redwood Street in West Porterville as parents dropped of their kids at Burton School District’s new Summit Charter Intermediate Academy (SCIA) where district staff greeted parents and students welcoming them for the first official instructional day on campus.
Classes started at 8:00 a.m. for sixth and seventh grade students at SCIA, who were treated to the sight of fresh paint and new walls and desks in the classrooms.
“I’m honored to be the principal to open up the school,” said Rosa Guerrero SCIA principal. “We have been anxiously waiting for the opening, and finally our kids get to step foot on campus as a whole.”
SCIA students were all divided into three schools — Summit Charter Collegiate Academy, Summit Charter Academy Lombardi and Summit Charter Academy Matthew — while the final touches were made to the Intermediate Academy. SCIA’S grand opening had been postponed since the beginning of the academic year until yesterday when students finally got to set foot on campus.
SCIA started off its first academic year at full capacity, with around 400 students enrolled. There are about 33 students per classroom stated Guerrero, who also mentioned that there
six sixth grade classes and about 140 seventhgrade students.
SCIA'S main building contains a staff room, office, and library andis flanked on either side by two wings, one for the sixth graders and the other for the seventh graders. Students have all possible accommodations, from having their own gym to a library and they each received an ipad for one-on-one learning said Guerrero.
“It's exciting to see the students want to come, and the parents want their kids to come also,” said Guerrero. “I want my students to be challenged with the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. I want them to be global learners and for them to use their knowledge about the world to apply it locally. They will be good citizens in our community.”
Something unique about SCIA is their emerging dual program said Guerrero.
“About half of our six graders are bi-literate, and the school is IB, which is about community service action and global engagement for change,” said Guerrero.
SCIA will also be trying the “no bell” system, meaning they will not have a bell ringing every time students have to leave to another classroom, opting to have teachers dismiss the classes instead.
“Due to teachers telling me that the bells were sometimes distracting, and sometime the kids listened to the bell more than to the teachers, we are going to implement that system so we will only have a bell in the morning for classes to begin and at the end of the school day,” said Guerrero.
Students were divided in three different schools before, but now are all together as one in their new school. Now that the students are on campus, clubs and other activities will soon be available for students to join.
“My goal is to create a culture that my kids are going to care for each other, regardless of where they came from,” said Guerrero. “I want the students to be college ready, and prepare them for SCCA.”
Guerrero said they are planning to add eighth grade for the next academic year, but are still in the discussion process.
“The discussion right now is whether or not are we going to keep the seventh grade students as eight graders next year. If so, are we going to add portables or other adjustments to fit another grade, but it all is still in the planning process.”
For now, only minor adjustments need to be made, like adding televisions to classrooms, benches and grass for the middle of the campus. A soccer and baseball field will be built later on so the school will be able to host their own sports. Currently they have basketball courts where physical education classes were meeting Tuesday morning.
Seventh grade students have 50-minute periods that vary with multiple subjects, making it like similar to a high school schedule. Sixth grade students spend half of the day in one class and swap for the other half of the day.
“Teachers were working hard all weekend getting ready for today,” said Guerrero. “We were waiting for three weeks, and today we have all students in one campus. I hope for the best this academic year.”
SCIA back to school night will be on Thursday, Sept, 13 at 6 p.m., and picture day is Friday, Sept, 14.