HUNTINGTON – This year, the Gateway Regional School district is realigning grades by doing away with the junior high school and instituting a middle school that will include grades six through eight.
The middle school will now be on the same schedule as the high school, with school beginning at 7:35 a.m. and dismissal at 2:05.
The elementary school will incorporate pre-kindergarten through fifth grade and high school will remain grades nine through 12.
Prior to this change, the elementary school was pre-kindergarten through fourth grade, middle school was fifth and sixth grade, junior high was seventh and eighth grade and the high school was grades nine through 12.
“I have to say that this is our biggest change this year,” said Gateway Principal Jason Finnie.
According to Finnie, the purpose of phasing out the junior high and expanding the middle school was to help Gateway to “better address the developmentally appropriate needs of our students.”
“Some schools have gone to a grades seven through 12 model, but we felt that was just not the best for our school,” Finnie said. “Our big focus in middle school is to help students in changing behaviors and to work with them on options and making choices.”
Finnie said that the move will not only help develop an appropriate middle school culture, but reduce the number of transitions students have to go through between grades.
The seventh and eighth grade time schedule will remain the same, but the skills block will move to the end of the day, matching that of grades nine through 12.
With sixth-graders being part of the middle school, their days will begin roughly one hour earlier than in previous years, with the start of school at 7:35 a.m.
“The sixth-graders are not used to moving around for different subjects, so they will likely move together with their homeroom,” Finnie said.
Finnie said that having the middle school and high school on the same schedule allows multiple grade levels to work together during the simultaneous project-based learning period. “I think the teachers are excited about this because it helps them to more easily work in teams, and to plan cross-curriculum work,” he said.
“This kind of flexible grouping also allows students to work together or to participate in peer mentorship,” Finnie said.
This year, Gateway Regional School welcomes Kurt Garivaltis as its new pupil services director. Garivaltis replaces Alice Taverna, who retired at the end of the last school year.
Finnie said Garivaltis has an in-depth background in education and social services.
He began his career in the Massachusetts Department of Social Services and worked in several private schools, serving students with a variety of needs.
Garivaltis worked for seven years at the Adams-Cheshire Regional School District, first as a supervisor then as director of special services. He then moved on to the Eagleton School in Great Barrington, where he was first director of marketing and admissions and then appointed acting educational program director by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
In that capacity he oversaw the school’s closure after Department of Early Education and Child Care and DESE imposed sanctions against the school. He was responsible for safely and successfully transitioning 76 intensive-needs students with disabilities to care facilities, homes and other programs.
“He has a lot of good experience and he is very familiar with our type of school and what small regional schools have to deal with,” Finnie said.
There are 209 students in middle school and 239 in the high school. The Gateway district serves Blandford, Chester, Huntington, Middlefield, Montgomery and Russell.