Salem Saltonstall Middle School Grades To Close: School Committee
SALEM, MA — Salem’s Saltonstall School will no longer be a K-8 school after the School Committee voted on Tuesday to authorize Superintendent Steve Zrike’s proposal to consolidate all middle school grades at Collins Middle School.
School Committee members also voiced support on Monday night for moving the grades together effective next school year rather than implementing a “phased” approach that would allow students who started sixth grade at Saltonstall to continue to go to school there until they go to the high school.
Zrike cited equity, educational and social reasons behind the proposal with the difficulty in replicating the offerings of the bigger Collins School at the much smaller Saltonstall.
Find out what's happening in Salemwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
He said at a previous School Committee meeting that maintaining the two middle school programs amounted to “educational malpractice” for the approximately 140 students who attend grades 6 through 8 there.
“We will do right by the kids at Salts in the transition,” Zrike said. “We are going to invest the time necessary to make sure it’s smooth.
Find out what's happening in Salemwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
“You have my promise to the families and the students that we make sure that we do this the right way.”
Zrike called the consolidation “exciting for the future of the Salem Public Schools to make sure that all kids have access to, I think, what is and what will continue to be an amazing middle school experience that we want to continue to grow in Salem.”
Salem Mayor and School Committee Chair Dominick Pangallo urged Saltonstall students and parents feeling uneasy about the shift to reach out to their classmates and fellow families at Collins Middle School about their experiences there.
Click Here: wests tigers shirt
“A lot of the feedback in the surveys that we heard felt like it was responsive to maybe perceptions of what Collins maybe had been like 10 years ago,” Pangallo said. “That’s not the Collins of today. I really encourage you to get to know Collins Middle School and all the educators that are there, and the families and students who have gone through there more recently.
“It is a supportive place. It is a place that is doing incredible work for our kids.”
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
