Middle school won’t be the same next year.

Grades 6-8 previously shared teachers and classes in the middle-school “pod” of the rebuilt Haines School.

But next year, sixth grade will be held in a traditional homeroom, while seventh- and eighth-grade students will have two periods of electives, including with high school students.

School superintendent Ginger Jewell said the administration made the change based on comments from parents and principals, to “expand opportunities” for middle-grade students.

Middle school was a “recurring theme,” Jewell said, in conversations she had with parents when she arrived here.

“In speaking with administrators and looking at scheduling, we realized our resources could be used more effectively to serve students. (The revised schedule) exposes seventh and eighth grades to more choices and opportunities for more rigorous course work for those students who are able to do it,” Jewell said.

Jewell said there’s no “right way” to arrange class schedules of students in middle grades. “There are variations on the theme. There’s a lot of (grades) 7-12 scheduling, especially in smaller schools.”

Middle school social studies teacher Lisa Andriesen said she understands the reasoning behind the change, which she said would open a class like Spanish down to eighth grade. “It’s about more choice and not having required electives. That’s the biggest difference.”

Under the middle school formula, for example, some sixth graders took math with eighth graders. Further, students in grades 6-8 were socially integrated at lunch, dances and mini “exploratory” classes. “The idea was to integrate them with team-building activities,” Andriesen said.

Andriesen said she supports the grades 6-8 format. “Developmentally, sixth graders are in that group… Middle school is a special age. They go through things differently than high school and elementary students,” Andriesen said.

Andriesen said she’s glad there’s still some autonomy between grades 7-8 and high school. “It’s good they’re not trying to lump them all together. They still want to retain some kind of identity as a middle school.”

Student Kayliegh Fisher, 13, who is entering eighth grade, said she’s trying to be open-minded about the change, but she doesn’t understand it.

“I went into sixth grade and that was the year everybody matured. It was to get ready for high school in terms of homework and learning to do things yourself,” Fisher said.

Moving into sixth grade meant getting a locker and not having to stand in line, she said. “You got treated like you were older, and you got to feel like you could do things on your own. Eighth graders did push us around a little bit, but it was more like teaching us what to do,” she said. “When you split up (grades 6-8), how do you teach that stuff?” she said.

The sixth-grade classroom will remain in the middle school “pod” that’s separate from the school’s elementary wing.