The Cumberland County School Board considering the conversion of its two K-8 schools into middle schools.
School Board Member Jon Matthews said Cumberland County does not have designated middle schools and that the transition from K-8 to high school is tough on young students. Matthews said studies have shown that designated middle schools provide better education opportunities for all students.
“I’ve wanted it for forever for our kids,” Matthews said. “Why not now, Our kids deserve everything that we can give them. Our kids deserve the best education that we can find for them.”
Matthews said the school board has sent out a public survey in hopes of getting the community’s feedback on the idea.
“I haven’t seen the results of the survey yet but I know that from my constituents that I see a lot and the people that I have talked to they are getting pretty excited,” Matthews said. “They are getting excited about wanting middle schools. you know and I’m sure that we will have some opposition. You are always gonna have some opposition to any idea but hopefully, this breaks that ice to get the conversation started to get the communities involved to get our children the best education that we can.”
Matthews said the board is still in the infant phases of the idea but assumes that if two K-8 schools are converted, the elementary students would be diverted to other elementary schools.
“We’ve got schools everywhere as far as that goes,” Matthews said. “So for the number of kids that we would be kind of transitioning and moving around, I don’t think it would be that bad. My personal opinion is that it would be the least impactful to use two of the buildings that we have now.”
Matthews said the board is not considering building new schools to add middle schools. Matthews said the board will likely find more direction in the middle school idea after finding a new director and putting together a budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
Matthews said adding middle schools to the county is something the school system should have done several years ago.
