Each community has its own suite of offices where students can go if they have a question or a problem. That system keeps traffic down in the main office a hectic place where one recent Monday morning, the staff was handling the registration of at least two new students and trying to cover classrooms that did not yet have substitute teachers for the day. When children enter Creekland in 6th grade, they are randomly assigned to a community and stay there until they finish 8th grade and leave for high school. Younger siblings are automatically placed in the same community as their older brothers or sisters. That way, parents grow familiar with the teachers as their children move through middle school.
Teachers work in teams of two, with each teacher focusing on two subjects.
While many middle schools use four-person teams, with each teacher concentrating on a single academic area, the arrangement at Creekland allows teachers to get to know their students better, said Vanessa Platto, who teaches 7th grade math and science. You know if they've had a haircut. Some youngsters, meanwhile, worry that they'll never see their best friends from elementary school, even though they are still in the same school. Whether that is the case at Creekland varies from student to student, but the communities are mixed during exploratory or elective classes, such as technology, music, or foreign languages. Clubs and other school organizations are also open to the whole student body.