Great Valley SD outlines transition plans and possible schedule tweaks for 5-6 center and middle school

At the May school board meeting, Great Valley School District administrators described a multi-pronged plan to ease transitions for students moving into the district’s new five‑six center and into the middle school, and they flagged possible schedule changes for next school year.

District leaders said the transition work includes fourth‑grade teacher meetings, campus visit days after Memorial Day, counselor meetings, a planned parent orientation (tentatively Aug. 12), and a sneak‑peek/open‑house the week before school starts. "We are going to do those visits, in the weeks following, after actually, Memorial Day," said Dr. Hammond, who is coordinating transition activities at the five‑six center. "They'll get tours of the building. They'll get to talk to us. They'll get to ask any salient questions."

Administrators also described operational changes they are considering after a full first year with the new schedules. At the five‑six center, staff identified congested handoffs in the dining commons and said they will evaluate a "possible 5 minute reduction in lunch to support a better structure between lunch and recess and some of the other things that are going on." Dr. Hammond explained that overlapping lunch groups — "200 kids sitting in the learning stairs, another 200 filtering in" — are creating management and transition challenges.

At the middle school, administrators discussed lengthening the daily advocacy period by 14 minutes — achieved by trimming two minutes from each instructional period (reducing periods from 49 to 47 minutes) — to create a roughly 24‑minute advocacy block. "One of the notable considerations that we have explored is the possibility of changing our advocacy period and extending it," Dr. Cohen said. "So we would add 14 minutes since we have a 7‑period day. We take 2 minutes off. 14 minutes. So it'd be a 24 minute period daily." Dr. Cohen added that the district is still weighing tradeoffs and that nothing is finalized.

Board members and administrators repeatedly framed the scheduling work as balancing logistics and student well‑being. A board member raised concerns about middle‑school students' limited informal downtime and urged that mental‑health and relationship building be prioritized when schedules are adjusted: "Downtime and opportunity is a mental health goal," the board member said. Administrators said advocacy is a key candidate to address those needs and that they are exploring responsive approaches such as self‑advocacy time and teacher‑student check‑ins.

Administrators previewed elective expansions at the middle school. The district said students will have more quarterly elective choices next year, and that music offerings will expand so a student who selects a music elective can take it for all four marking periods (instead of the single marking‑period option used this year). New music and cultural electives listed by staff include DJing, line dancing and rhythm/rap options. The district also flagged that the ElevateU special‑area course has generated consistent feedback and will be reviewed over the summer for possible enhancements.

Practical details for families include eight days this summer when the middle‑school building will be open, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., for students to walk schedules and practice locker combinations; a seventh‑grade orientation on Aug. 18 (9–11 a.m.); and targeted sessions for multilingual families with interpretation and childcare if requested. Dr. Cohen said student‑produced materials and in‑person tours were part of recent transition events: "Some of our students wrote, directed, edited, and created ... a day in the life of a seventh grader," she said, and the videos were used to help incoming students understand the building.

No formal schedule changes were adopted at the meeting; administrators said they will continue work over the summer and provide updates to the board before the school year begins.