SUBMITTED BY KATE BOWEN

To the Davis Joint Unified School District Board of Trustees:

My brothers and I attended Emerson Junior High School. My husband’s three children graduated from Emerson Junior High School. Our son, Spencer, is the current Student Body President at Emerson Junior High School. Our family has a long history with Emerson Junior High School.

I thoroughly understand the difficult decisions the Board of Education faces for the upcoming school year. I also understand the possibility that the Board will vote to close Emerson, redirecting students to Holmes and Harper Junior Highs. This would be a devastating blow to the students and the staff who have worked tirelessly for years in less than ideal conditions to develop a strong academic program and a sense of community among students, teachers, and staff members.

After reviewing the five options before the board, I would like to offer an additional alternative to those proposals – an alternative that requires both vision and courage. This proposal should be considered if you are to truly examine all options before making a decision of such monumental proportion or in the words of our superintendent, “The Davis Joint Unified School District is committed to making you a partner in these decisions by giving the facts you need.”

I have long been a proponent of the four-year high school design and a middle school format for children. Research has long suggested that a four-year high school is better for students academically and socially. A middle school model is also considered desirable over current 7th -9th grade junior high model, allowing students to retain “core” teachers for key subjects, while providing additional courses for electives. Davis is one of only a handful of districts in the entire state with the 7th-, 8th-, 9th- grade junior high model.

I would like to see the Board examine the possibility of establishing two four-year high schools in Davis beginning in the 2009-2010 school year, each with approximately 1200 students – Davis Senior High School and Harper Senior High School. Emerson and Holmes could be used as 7th- and 8th- grade campuses, creating a manageable number of students at each site. Ninth graders would benefit from the academic programs offered at the high school, eliminating the numbers of children who already travel to the high school for classes and athletics, and 7th- and 8th graders would have the opportunity to refine their academic skills before entering the time “when it counts” for grades. In addition, a smaller school setting would give students “an increasingly more positive attitude toward school.” (Thomas B. Gregory and Gerald R. Smith, 1987.) Small schools also “allow greater student participation in extracurricular activities.” (James M. Kearney, 1994)

No one wants to close a school, especially without careful examination of the consequences. To close Emerson this year, would result in two overcrowded junior high campuses (which we have experienced without success in the past), unhappy school families in West Davis, transportation and safety issues for 11, 12, 13, and 14 year-olds, and displaced staff members who are already stretched emotionally and professionally. Harper was originally envisioned as an eventual second high school campus. Let’s use Harper as a high school, with the goal of developing two smaller high schools to better serve our students. Then, during the next school years the best minds in Davis could address the details of sports teams, musical groups, and activities at the two schools.

Please take the time to consider this option before making your decision. It would be a bold choice – one that requires vision and courage. It’s time to move forward, not back to the overcrowding we worked so hard to dismiss in the late 1990s.

Closing Emerson at this time would be a hasty decision with long-term implications – a decision that once made, could never be reversed. I encourage the Board to slow down this process, to make the best decision for all of our students.

Finally, in the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, our school’s namesake, “To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.” I challenge the Board to have that courage and do the right thing. You owe it to the population of West Davis to seriously consider options that will keep Emerson Junior High’s spirit alive for generations to come.