Ryan Jones, new Camp Curtin principal

School district leadership proposed a plan to address middle school consolidation challenges at Harrisburg’s main middle school Tuesday night.

Two weeks ago, staff and teachers told the board that sending most of the district’s middle school students to Camp Curtin had been challenging. They complained that, as a result of the district’s planned closure of Rowland Academy, they’d been dealing with increased behavioral issues, like class disruption and physical aggression, and large classroom sizes.

But the building’s incoming principal, Ryan Jones, told the board Tuesday that he has been observing the school since he was tapped to lead it in May. He believes the issue isn’t the consolidation plan itself; it’s the lack of systems in place in the building to support it.

“There is an absence of procedures almost across the board,” Jones said.

The district official was last the principal of Marshall Math and Science Academy, a role he held for 12 years, serving in an acting capacity for the first five.

While his position as Camp Curtin principal officially begins in July, he said he has already established a leadership team and a plan for Camp Curtin.

He showed the board his five-year roadmap for the school.

“I don’t do anything without a plan,” he said.

The plan is informed by his experience operating Marshall, the district’s application-based magnet that takes about a fourth of its kids. It also acknowledges differences.

Camp Curtin Middle School sign

“You can’t operate Camp Curtin the same way that you would operate Math Science,” Jones said, acknowledging Marshall is a much larger school by design.

His plan proposes creating a two-school middle school system with four tracks overall. Marshall Math and Science Academy would be the track for the district’s STEM-focused students, he said. Camp Curtin would house the other three: business, arts and general education.

“We think about Camp Curtin as the ‘Camp Curtin Academy of Arts and Business,’” Jones proposed.

He thinks adding specialty tracks at the school would get students excited about learning again.

“By adding electives and giving students agency and choice, you offer them the opportunity to explore,” Jones said.

Such tracks would be implemented three to five years into his post, he said. But that is the vision he has in mind coming in.

As he and his leadership team navigate his first two years, they will lay the groundwork for the bigger change.

This includes changing the school’s master schedule to aim for 20 to 25 students per classroom next year. And implementing common planning time for teachers in the same grade bands so they can discuss common students.

The plan also moves classrooms around in the school to better keep grade levels together in newly designated ‘zones’ of the building, so they don’t have to cross paths. The new building zones will also better support safety monitoring during transition times, he said.

“There’s no reason for other grade levels to cross paths,” he said.

What’s more, he’s implementing discipline systems that focuses on reflection, teacher-student conversation, and student accountability.

“Discipline when done right is a proactive thing, not a reactive thing,” Jones said.

Board president Roslyn Copeland

While the team does anticipate some difficult behaviors, he emphasized that his administrative team is built of professionals equipped and experienced to handle it.

Multiple board members thanked Jones for the comprehensive presentation.

Board member Doug Thompson-Leader pointed out that Jones’ former assistant principal at Marshall, Amy Grab, will be assuming the top post there, giving the district an advantage. As close collaborators, the educators will help the district as it moves forward with the two-school middle school plan, he said.

Board member Annie Hughes, meanwhile, asked where the most likely points of failure for the plan would be.

“Loss of staff,” Jones said.

Board members also questioned if teachers and parents felt comfortable with the plan. Jones said he plans to talk to both groups further and will invite district parents to hear a similar presentation this summer.

The board will vote on whether or not to close Rowland Academy next week. The district completed phasing middle school students out of the building by sending them to Camp Curtin earlier this month.

The middle school consolidation effort is a district plan that began under state receivership in 2023, designed to save money on faculty and facilities.

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