By Tamsin Hurlbut

   Have you ever tried to get through the sixth-grade locker row? 

   Now, imagine 22 more sixth graders! At the November board meeting Dr. Porter suggested adding an additional class to each middle school grade, so in total 66 more students at TPA. He says, “We would do this because we have had more success retaining high schoolers who have been here since sixth grade.” 

   Dr. Porter wants to avoid the phenomenon of students attending TPA for one year and then leaving, he said. Also for retention, he suggested making the language requirements more flexible for incoming students.

   “Our registrar, Mrs. Rink, says people are turned off from TPA because they would have to make up all the years of language online.” The board members present at the meeting expressed some interest in these proposals, and will make future votes on them. 

   In addition, the board looked over the calendar for the 2024-25 calendar, and asked for a 2025-26 calendar. Though there has been much debate over whether to shift the TPA academic year to fit the other local school’s calendars, both of the proposed years are not in the modified year-round model, which the Tempe and Kyrene school districts are on. 

Lastly, the board’s Dress Code Committee had no updates, even though TPA dress code is still not in compliance with Gov. Katie Hobbs’ executive order prohibiting race-based hair discrimination, and our girls skirts policy still includes the language, “The skirt hem should be… within one inch of the ground when kneeling on a level surface.”