Naugatuck Grade 8 Students to be Recognized in Separate Ceremonies

There will be an eighth grade moving-on ceremony at City Hill Middle School, but it will be different than usual.

Naugatuck’s only grade 7-8 school will not hold a formal evening graduation ceremony for the 2011 eighth grade class. School officials decided on the change in April, and had notified the Board of Education after staff at City Hill decided on another direction, said Superintendent John Tindall-Gibson. 

Instead, City Hill Middle School will be hosting three days of completion ceremonies, which will occur during regular school hours on June 23, 24 and 27, beginning at 9:30 a.m. each day, said Principal Christine Blanchard. The students will receive a certificate, a common practice ever year, although the school is foregoing the formal caps and gowns used in previous years.

“We’ll recognize the students for their accomplishments and deeds as they move on,” Blanchard said. “We feel it will be a memorable and happy day for the kids, and a special day.”

Part of the issue, Blanchard noted, is accommodating so many students in one space. Before 2010, Naugatuck had two middle schools — Hillside Middle School and City Hill Middle School. But a reconfiguration that went into effect last year placed all the grade 6-8 students under one roof, while converting Hillside into an grades 5-6 intermediate school along with Cross Street School.

A merged school meant one large population of students. In total, there are 390 grade 8 students at City Hill this year, Blanchard said.

“Because of the number of students we have in each grade it becomes difficult to accommodate all the children at once,” Blanchard said. 

Blanchard said City Hill staff wanted to make the completion event a more “welcoming ceremony” by having the three different teams of students receive their own recognition. Each team of students are taught by the same teachers and attend the same classes together, she said. In effect, each has become a “school within a school,” she said.

Blanchard said the different team ceremonies mean 150 students will be recognized at a time, allowing more room in the building to accommodate parents and perhaps guests.

“The downside for the parents is it’s during the day and some will have to miss work,” she said.

The day will also feature the school’s jazz band and choir, Blanchard said, as well as academic awards and other accolades. 

There have been some questions and concerns from residents, Blanchard noted. She said some borough residents have requested extra tickets, while others have asked “why the change?”

“We try to explain that this has to do with the numbers and giving (the ceremony) the dignity it really deserves,” Blanchard said.

Tindall-Gibson said the changeover from a graduation to a recognition ceremony is more akin with a movement with middle schools across the country. He said Naugatuck is still one of the last school districts to have held such a graduation ceremony, despite the fact that the students are just moving on and not graduating to another level.

Part of it, according to the superintendent, has to do with focusing more on going beyond high school to college — or moving from the “K-12” model to the “K-16” model.”

“We deemphasize graduation at that level and start talking to children about a K-16 level,” Tindall-Gibson said. “We think K-12 and our focus in public school is getting everybody graduated, but the dialogue is shifted and we’re thinking K-16. Then, the dialogue is about preparing everyone to go college."