Farmington Middle & Junior High Prepare For New Year

FIRST DAY OF THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR IS AUG. 14

FARMINGTON — Two school buildings in Farmington School District will have different grade configurations when they open for the 2018-19 school year.

The former high school will become a new Farmington Junior High with about 600 seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders.

Joe McClung is principal and Leonard Ogden is assistant principal. Both administrators come from Fayetteville School District.

Lynch Middle School will be called Farmington Middle School on the Randall G. Lynch campus. It will house more than 600 students in fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grades.

Julia Williams, who served as principal of Ledbetter Intermediate, will move across the street to head up the middle school. Tracy Sutton is leaving his role as a Farmington football coach to be assistant middle school principal.

In a recent interview, McClung and Williams talked about the upcoming year.

Farmington Junior High

McClung said Farmington will no longer have a separate Freshman Academy, but there will still be a semblance of the academy in place. Mostly, the school will concentrate on creating a junior high atmosphere for seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders, he said.

“The biggest focus is that we feel like we’re starting a new school,” McClung said. “I told our staff, ‘We’re Farmington Junior High.’ As we build that culture and climate, that will be huge for us. We’re building a new identity.”

The school’s administration is working on common expectations, common building rules and student expectations. These will be set in place and the school will build on that in the future.

For the first year, ninthgraders will continue with block scheduling. Seventhand eighth-graders will have an eight-period school day.

McClung said he plans to appoint a committee to look at a unified schedule for all grades beginning with the 2019-20 school year.

The grade levels will be together for core classes but will be mixed for electives.

Ninth-graders will be in what used to be called the Senior Hall at the former high school. This is the building closest to Main Street. Freshman will take their core classes in that building.

Eighth-graders will be divided into two teams. One team will have its core classes on the east end of the Senior Hall building. The other team will be in the main building.

Seventh-graders will also be in the main building.

The junior high will use the “F” building (once called the “J” building) for electives that include choir, health, art, career and technical education. The old agriculture building will be used for the EAST Initiative program.

McClung said the school’s Open House will have stations to provide more information to parents and students. Parents and students can visit classrooms to meet with teachers and ask additional questions.

His team is working on a student handbook that will be ready for Open House.

Farmington Middle School

Williams said she decided to call her school Farmington Middle School instead of Lynch Middle School to help show the difference in grade levels at the two schools. Most people identify a junior high as having seventhninth grades and a middle school with younger grades, Williams said.

“This will help differentiate who is going to be there and who is going to leave,” she added.

Her plan is to stay with the new name. She said she believes it will be simpler in the long run.

Williams has not added any new positions to the middle school. Her hope right now is that she does not have to add another class for fourth-grade. She has seven classes in that grade and only 15 spots left before she would have to hire a new teacher.

One thing new for Williams is that she will have an assistant principal for the first time. She has served as Ledbetter’s principal for 10 years and has not had an assistant during that time.

Sutton’s main responsibilities will include discipline and the day-to-day operations of the school but he’ll still know everything that’s going on and will be involved in all decisions, Williams said.

“This will free me up to have more flexibility with curriculum and teacher evaluations.”

Her plan is to continue with some of the traditions from Ledbetter and Lynch. The middle school will have a mother/son Italian feast, father/daughter dance and a sixth-grade semi-formal dance.

Transportation

Transportation for the school district will remain the same as last year. Students from Folsom and Williams elementary schools and Farmington High will ride buses to the middle school and then transfer to the bus route for their address. Junior High students will walk to the middle school to catch their buses.

Cars to pick up middle school students will drive in front of the building, off Rheas Mill Road. Each car will have a tag to identify the child associated with that vehicle or parent.

At the junior high, cars will enter from Rheas Mill to pick up students in front of the main building and exit onto Main Street. The school is working with the police department to make sure the car line runs smoothly when turning onto the busy highway.

Smooth Transition

Williams said she believes the transition to reconfigure the grades has gone as smoothly as possible. She noted there always are issues you don’t foresee.

The schools have spent about five-six weeks getting equipment, furniture and teacher materials moved to classrooms and other space. The district used students, the maintenance department and a moving company for the work.

Reconfiguring grades for the middle school and opening up a new junior high building made the most sense without requiring the district to construct a new school building, Williams said.

Ledbetter has closed for now as a school but will continue to be used for other purposes. The district’s technology department has moved to the main Ledbetter building, along with classes for Northwest Technical Institute. Last year NTI was in the old Senior Hall at the former high school.

Ledbetter’s annex building will be used for the district’s nutrition department. Northwest Arkansas Education Service Cooperative also plans to use the annex building for some of its services.

“I’m looking forward to having all our campuses working together,” Williams said.

The district’s new administrative team, which includes all principals and assistant principals, has met over the summer and Williams said she believes everyone is headed in the same direction.

“The continuity in the schools is something parents will see,” she said.

As students from the two elementary schools merge into the middle school, she said she believes students will advance through her school and then the junior high and be ready for high school.

McClung

Williams