EDMONTON — Metcalfe County students who will be in sixth grade next fall will not attend the same school as they have this year.

Instead, the students will attend a newly created sixth grade center on the Metcalfe County Middle School campus, according to officials with the Metcalfe County School System.

The new school will not be in a new building, but rather in an existing building that is being used by Edmonton Elementary’s sixth grade this year.

The Metcalfe County Board of Education voted unanimously earlier this week to create the sixth grade center. The idea behind its creation is to help students’ transition from elementary school to middle school.

“It helps us get everyone on the same page and ready to enter middle school,” said Superintendent Pat Hurt, adding that she believes the sixth grade is the right time for school officials to begin preparing students for upper levels of school, including middle and high school.

She pointed out that the Kentucky Core Content exam is given to fourth and fifth-grade students, but no attention is really paid to the sixth-grade students to ensure they are ready for middle school.

Creating a sixth grade center is something the school district has been thinking about doing for quite some time and was suggested by several superintendents prior to Hurt.

“As I’ve done a lot of studying on the issue ... we seem to be losing kids between the middle school and elementary level,” said Steve Thompson, school board chairman.

Thompson compared Kentucky Core Content scores from students in the fourth grade through the seventh grade and said students in the sixth grade don’t seem to perform as well as on the exam as those who were in grades below or above them.

“The sixth grade year always seems to be a point that they are not really elementary any longer and they are not really middle school,” he said. “I feel like this is the missing piece to get us where we need to be educationally.”

Several years ago the school district attempted to integrate the sixth, seventh and eighth grade classes at the middle school, but Thompson said it was just too crowded so the sixth-grade was moved back to the elementary schools. Now that the district has the space in the auxiliary units adjacent to the middle school there is room to create the sixth grade center.

At one time when district officials were considering the creation of a sixth grade center, rumors began to circulate that it was a ploy to reduce enrollment at the district’s outlying elementary schools and to eventually close them.

Thompson said that was not true then and it’s not true now.

“That has been made clear this time also,” he said.

The school district hosted a meeting for fifth grade parents a couple of weeks ago. Approximately 55 parents attended the meeting during which it was pointed out in a Power Point presentation that the schools district has no plans to close the outer lying elementary schools.

Also during the meeting, parents were given an opportunity to ask questions and to tour the facility.

District officials are expecting the new sixth grade center to have an enrollment of 112 students next year.

Allen Trotter, principal of Metcalfe County Middle School, will also serve as principal of the new sixth grade center.

Metcalfe County is not the only school district to have a sixth grade center. The Glasgow Independent School District had a sixth grade center for many years, but now sixth-graders attend Glasgow Middle School along with seventh and eighth grade students.

“I believe 1966 was the first year our sixth-graders began attending Bunche (Sixth Grade Center) and that continued until Glasgow Middle School opened in 1993,” said Randy Wilkinson, director of pupil personnel. “Our main focus was to ease the passage from their elementary school experience to the middle school experience while making the transition as smooth as possible for students.

“In reality, the parents probably had more anxiety than the students as they moved to the middle school. I could certainly understand the concerns and fears of our parents, as there is a noticeable difference both physically and emotionally between sixth and eighth-graders.”

Segregating the sixth grade from the seventh and eighth grade students he said helped ease some parents’ anxiety.

The creation of such centers, whether they be for those in the sixth or ninth grades, is based on the school-within-a-school concept in which education officials attempt to downsize and develop a more personal and relational experience between staff, students and parents, he said.

The Barren County School District did something similar with its ninth grade a few years ago when it established the Trojan Academy. Barren County does not segregate its sixth grade. Those students attend the district’s elementary schools.

Glasgow also segregates its ninth grade from the rest of the student body, even though the students attend classes in the same building.

The Caverna Independent School District also does not segregate its sixth grade, and according to Barry Nesbitt, principal of Caverna Middle School. The primary reason for it is a lack of space.

Caverna’s sixth grade attends the same school building as the district’s seventh and eighth grades and are just down the hall from high school students.

Thompson said a genuine effort will be made to make next year’s sixth grade students feel special.

“They will get to experience the middle school environment, but they will be their own separate group. We are going to make it a really special experience for these kids,” he said. “I really think this is a move that is going to pay big dividends for our kids.”