Written by Michael Baker|

Students, teachers, and parents feel as if they are in the dark about the building of the new Morgan School. I heard rumors about the layout of the new school, which would separate 9th and 10th graders from 11th and 12th graders. These two different areas would be on opposite sides of the school and would be referred to as academies.

To find more information, I went to talk to our principal, Mrs. Hagness. To begin with I found out what the academies really are, and why they were pushing for this design of the new school. Mrs. Hagness said, ” they are a series of clustered classrooms similar to a neighborhood rather than departments, using as much space as possible, and having learning outside of the classroom as well.” The school will have three levels: the center level being the main area with the office and academies branching off, and the other two levels will contain classrooms in the academies. The school is being planned this way to maximize space and make it more efficient. When asked how the idea came to mind to create these separate academies Mrs. Hagness said that the school has people who come in and evaluate the school. After the evaluation, they tried to figure out how they could create a more personalized environment for students and teachers.

At first I, and many others, were skeptical about dividing 9th and 10th graders from 11th and 12th. Mrs. Hagness was able to clear this up for me. She said that, “The different grade levels will not be completely separated,” and that, “9th and 10th would be focused on the transition into highschool, while 11th and 12th would focus on transitioning out of high school and into college or their career. Although students in different grade levels will be focusing on different things all of the classes they take will be taking the knowledge they learn and applying it to what they want to do later in life. Another concern among the community was about how strict the separation between the grade levels would be. Mrs. Hagness explained that upperclassmen who need to take lower level classes will and underclassmen who are able to take advanced level classes will be able to.

There have not been many concerns about the new layout, but it’s a very big change. Mrs. Hagness said, “It’s a little scary because this is a very big change from the typical school layout.” Many are asking, “Why fix something that may not be broken?” The New Morgan School’s building committee believes that there will be bumps in the road and that teachers and students are going to have to be open minded about such drastic changes to high school life.

A few things are still being decided, though. Lockers will most likely be near classrooms in the academies. When lunch will be served to students is still up in the air. At the moment our school dismisses for lunch by wings, which will not work with the new layout.  The town of Guilford is also trying a similar idea with their new high school, only instead of academies they are called pods. Guilford is about to break ground on their new school as well.

Have any other questions regarding The New Morgan School’s layout? Comment below, or send your questions to [email protected]

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