Parent presents Ohio Family Engagement Center capstone on easing fifth-to-sixth-grade transition

At the Sept. 8 Delaware City Schools board meeting, parent Mora Atwater described a capstone project she developed after participating in Ohio State University’s Ohio Family Engagement Center citizens academy and urged the district to explore stronger supports for students and families transitioning from fifth to sixth grade.

Atwater said she was the only participant from Delaware County selected for the academy and that her capstone focused on scaffolding the path from fifth to sixth grade in Delaware’s neighborhood elementary-school model, where multiple elementary schools funnel into a larger shared building and then a large high school.

"I developed a project focusing on the transition between fifth and sixth grade in our district," Atwater said. She described activities carried out over the summer and early fall, including restarting the Dempsey parent-teacher organization, collecting feedback on a sixth-grade orientation and engaging building leadership. She said the capstone ties to research on adolescent development, district strategic goals, chronic absenteeism and levy support.

Atwater said she requested staff focus groups, student focus groups and parent focus groups as part of the superintendent’s Mission Delaware phase-2 building visits; she said she had a set of recommendations to strengthen family, school and community partnerships and offered to share them with district leadership.

Superintendent Pomeroy and staff framed the district’s Mission Delaware transition-phase visits as an opportunity to gather that kind of information: Pomeroy said he will spend full days in each building meeting staff, students and parents and that staff have asked schools to schedule focus groups, classroom visits and other activities to gather information.

The board did not take action on Atwater’s recommendations at the meeting; Atwater said she will continue to work with school leadership on next steps.