Posted at 6:44 p.m., Monday, February 5, 2007
Manoa Elementary to keep sixth grade
Advertiser Staff
Sixth grade will continue at Manoa Elementary for another six years under a decision by state schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto.The decision was made in the wake of an angry protest by many Manoa Elementary parents who said the school community had been misled into believing it was compulsory to close the sixth grade down at Manoa and move their students to Stevenson Middle School.
Many parents told the Board of Education at a January meeting that their children were not ready for the rough-and-tumble life of a middle school.
Hamamoto has sided with the parents, offering them the choice of sending their Manoa sixth-graders next year to either Manoa Elementary or Stevenson Middle.
The Board of Education has mandated that the state gradually establish middle schools, but has set no timeline to do so.
Under Hamamoto's decision, all students currently at Manoa will be allowed to attend the elementary all the way through sixth grade, making 2013 the last year sixth grade will be offered in the school.
