The closure of Jenkins Middle School has officially affected students at both Jenkins and Doherty High School. For those who may not be aware, Jenkins was shut down due to a long-standing issue that was discovered just one year after the building was constructed in 1999. The school was built on an unstable foundation, located next to Cottonwood Creek Park’s extensive creek, which has caused it to sink. This has resulted in foundational cracks and structural damage to the building, rendering it unsafe for students and faculty.
D11’s administration has faced a lot of backlash over how Jenkins has been handled. They have had several meetings with parents to explain the next steps after Jenkins was shut down. According to reports from people there, the first meeting didn’t go very well, not much was accomplished, and there was a lot of screaming and yelling.
The second meeting held at Doherty’s auditorium was much more informative than the first. It officially addressed the future plans for Jenkins’s students. Specifically, it was officially announced that Jenkins’s 6th graders would be transitioning to Russell Middle School, while the 7th and 8th graders would move to Doherty. The meeting also covered important topics such as transportation, separating Jenkin’s kids from Doherty’s and Russell’s students, and the expected structure of the students’ schedules in its presentation.
Although they didn’t go into much depth about how Doherty was going to be affected, there were many adjustments made that were pretty significant. Almost the entire English and Math hallways are now reserved for the Jenkin’s move, which has required them to combine and break down certain classes and changing some student schedules. This involved moving classrooms or dropping classes for Doherty students to fit into the smaller space and help Jenkins students feel familiar with their new schedules. These changes weren’t too significant for most, but they did have some impact on certain students’ high school plans.
For example, the schedule change for Doherty’s Monday late starts has affected students significantly. Initially, during the first half of this year, Doherty students would start at 9:25 AM and finish at 3:10 PM on Mondays. However, this schedule was altered in response to District 11’s goal of separating Doherty students from those at Jenkins. Keeping the schedule would have created more of a parking lot problem, according to administration.
Now, on Mondays, students start at 7:35 AM and end their day at 1:10 PM. This shift has been challenging for many students, including freshman Laila Philips, who commented, “On Mondays, our school hours changed, and it’s hard to stay awake or focused with the limited time in the morning to relax and start my week.”
It appears that only Doherty students are (for the most part) complaining about the change to the Monday schedule. Sophomore Jayden Burke said, “People are frustrated with the new Monday schedule and have a hard time finding their new classrooms in such a short amount of time.” This frustration is understandable, considering students were expected to locate their relocated classes in less than two days.
Many Doherty students are unhappy about the changes for Monday, but it seems that the feelings of Jenkins students can be summed up pretty quickly. From what we’ve scarcely seen, most of them are not happy about attending a new high school or transitioning to a completely new middle school building. The Jenkins kids just seem to be direct and straight to the point in their dislike of this change. For example, sixth grader Ricki Petroff expressed, “I think the transformation is hard but also stupid.”
At this point the district is still waiting on reports for how to fix Jenkins, how much it will cost, and how long it will take. Doherty teachers have been told that having Jenkins here is only until the end of the semester.
