Making the transition from middle school to high school can be a big change for some people.  Going from a school with about 300 to 400 kids, to a school with about 2,000 kids,it can be a lot to handle.

This is why at the school board meeting on Nov. 17, Dr. Eric Knost proposed an idea in which eighth graders have the chance to go to a freshman academy instead of attending freshman year in a high school.  This would be a great thing to put into effect.

“ Decisions regarding 8th graders who will attend the academies as 9th graders will be based upon principal recommendations and we will highly encourage parents to accept this recommendation.,” Said Knost “They would not have to go through with our recommendation, but we would highly recommend they do.”

Most students will probably remain in the academy for the full 9th grade year; however, if any student is showing evidence of much success, a change at semester could be considered.Once this idea was proposed some questions came up like “where would we build the school?” or “how would this affect the taxes?”.  Knost did not answer these questions due to time, and stated that the topic would be discussed at a later meeting.

But my opinion of a freshman academy remains positive, this would be a great way to help the younger kids transition better into a bigger and more active environment.

It would have been nice to have this idea sooner, because high school can be a scary thing for the first few months.