Annex Grade School

Annex Grade School to send 8th graders to Weiser Middle School

Imagine going from a classroom with seven other kids and suddenly walking into a high school with around 500 students, a maze of classrooms, and dozens of teachers.

It’s a whole new world for a wide-eyed freshman from a tiny rural community and the experience can be difficult, if not overwhelming.

At a March 15 Weiser School District meeting, the board of trustees unanimously approved a plan for Annex Charter School eighth graders to attend Weiser Middle School. The idea is to help acclimate students before they transition to high school. “It would mean a permanent transition, that’s the way we see it,” said Annex School District Superintendent Steve Bishop. “We’ve discussed this for many years. We have 96 students from pre-K to eighth grade and the eighth-grade kids have a real difficult time transitioning to high school. We have staff members who have witnessed this themselves. We have a smaller group of eighth graders this year, so the school board asked me to look into it for next year. I think the timing was good.” Annex has eight students who will attend as eighth graders next school year.

Bishop said the Annex School District will meet tonight, March 23, to discuss details of the plan. “We had to wait until we found out if this would work for the Weiser School District,” Bishop said. “Now that we know, we can meet and finalize everything.”

Weiser Middle School Principal Kenneth Dewlen said the school will have no trouble accepting the students. “Both superintendents have been talking recently at length and I was asked if we could absorb them, and I said that we could, so it’s a done deal,” said Dewlen, referring to Bishop and Weiser School District Superintendent Wade Wilson.
“This will be a great transition for the students as they go on to high school,” he said. Wilson agreed, saying that while attending Weiser Middle School is still a big step, it won’t be as overwhelming as making the jump from Annex straight to Weiser High School.

“Those kids go from a single-room classroom over at Annex to Weiser High School where they have all different teachers,” Wilson said. “At Weiser Middle School, we have all different teachers for our students, and they will have the opportunity to get to know some kids, get adjusted to the schedule, and those sorts of things. Annex eighth-grade students have traditionally transitioned to Weiser following their last year at the charter school.

“This is the first time they have requested to do this for the middle school, as far as I know; I don’t know that we’ve ever done that in the past,” Wilson said. “We’ve had one or two Annex students attend school here and the Annex School District has to pay tuition for the Weiser students and they come into our system, and that’s not a bad thing from my perspective.”

Bishop said it costs about $7,300 per student to send them to Weiser High School. Another step the Annex School District has taken to help make things easier for students was to hire a staff member dedicated to working one-on-one with transitioned students.

“Through Oregon [Department of Education], we’ve been able to hire a liaison to go between Annex and Weiser High School,” Bishop said. “This is new, and it will be her job to meet with these kids and help them to be on track to graduate. “We are hoping to make the transition easier for our kids. We want them to be successful with the transition and that one extra year will let them build friendships and get used to the rotating schedule and be more successful as high schoolers. We really just want them to be successful; that’s our bottom line.”

From Weiser Signal American – March 22, 2022