**The motion to adopt a middle school for the Grand Forks area was defeated!** Thank you to everyone who signed the petition.

This petition is to stop the proposed middle school in Grand Forks, BC. The School District's goal is to turn Perley Elementary into a middle school for Grade 6 to 8 students by September 2013. John A. Hutton Elementary School would have kindergarten to Grade 5 students while Grand Forks Secondary School would be for Grades 9 to 12.

A middle school will take away the rights of children who have had to leave one elementary to go the other for various reasons, i.e., learning disabilities, relocation, bullying, etc. It also takes the rights away of parents to choose where their children go to school, and the teachers that they would like to have teach their children. Families with children elementary school age and not in the same grade will have to manage taking their children to and from different schools at the same times. Also, middle school tends to make children grow up faster. Bullying tends to peak at around grade 6, and children will no longer have a choice of moving to a different school in this circumstance, they will either have to continue to endure the bullying, or be home-schooled.

Schools across the US are reverting back to K - 8. Taken from an article written in Time Magazine; http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1088694-2,00.html

[Middle School] the "Bermuda Triangle of education," as one report put it. It's the place where kids lose their way academically and socially--in many cases never to resurface. The most comprehensive report, a review of 20 years of educational research, was released last year by the Rand Corporation, the nonprofit research group in Santa Monica, Calif. Cheerfully titled Focus on the Wonder Years: Challenges Facing the American Middle School, it offered a harsh critique of the middle school record. Among its findings:

*More than half of eighth-graders fail to achieve expected levels of proficiency in reading, math and science on national tests.

*In international ratings of math achievement, U.S. students rank about average--ninth out of 17--at Grade 4, but sink to 12th place by Grade 8, setting the stage for further slippage in high school.

*Reported levels of emotional and physical problems are higher among U.S. middle school students than among their peers in all 11 other countries surveyed by the World Health Organization. The same "health behavior" survey found that U.S. middle schoolers have the most negative views of the climate of their schools and peer culture.

*Crime takes off in middle school. Statistics from 1996-97 show that while 45% of public elementary schools reported one or more incidents to the police, the figure jumps to 74% for middle schools--almost as high as high schools (77%).

*While not many studies directly compare K-8 schools with middle schools, those that do suggest that young teens do better both academically and socially in K-8 schools.

Most significant, the Rand report questioned the very idea of having separate schools for preteens: "Research suggests that the onset of puberty is an especially poor reason for beginning a new phase of schooling." Jaana Juvonen, the UCLA psychologist who spent more than 18 months crunching data for the report, believes that 11- and 12-year-olds are already dealing with so many changes that it makes little sense to pile on a change in schools. "Right around the time that most kids are transferring to middle school, everything starts to happen," she says. "There's physical development: you're starting to look different. And because of that, people's expectations of you are changing. In addition, there's cognitive development and new reasoning abilities. It is a very fragile period."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1088694,00.html#ixzz27oyUBe9P

This data is from the US, and they have a lot more experience with middle school than Canada does!

When we feel our goal is reached, this petition will be submitted electronically as well as in person to the school board and also emailed to the Minster of Education.  It will be accompanied with a letter stating that those who have added their names to this petition are against a middle school, and want to keep our elementary schools the way they are; K - 7.

Do what is right for our children, and save our schools!!