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Students used hammers to stamp different shapes into pieces of leather in the last moments of a maker space class at Thunder Mountain Middle School. Shortly afterward, another class filed in and got to work. Student Nia Paw learned how to dye a leather wallet from her classmates. She put on latex gloves and poured out thick, dark dye to make the wallet brown.
“We have dye and, like, some sort of cloth, and we have to rub it in, in like, a circular motion,” she said.
This isn’t a typical class – it’s part of the Juneau School District’s summer school program to get students ready for middle school.
Around 40 to 50 incoming seventh graders spent three weeks at Thunder Mountain Middle School in July as part of a transition program. Students from across the district navigated a larger building, juggled a class schedule and hit a major milestone – learning how to open lockers.
Paw, who went to Sayéik: Gastineau Community School in Douglas, said she liked meeting new people from outside of her school. But it wasn’t all fun and games.
“I think the only downside is the amount of stairs,” Paw said.
Working alongside her is Xander Thaler, who went to Sítʼ Eetí Shaanáx̱ – Glacier Valley Elementary School on the other side of Juneau. He said he feels ready.
“I’m excited I get to have the opportunity to finally go to middle school after waiting six years,” Thaler said.
He said summer school also introduced him to many other students from around the district.
“I like the socializing that I’ve done,” he said. “I feel like I’ve made new friends. I feel like I’ve met new people, and also I can get comfortable to the people I meet next year.”
His mom, Casey Locklear, said she was glad Thaler and his twin brother got to do the program, and wants them to pay that forward when the school year starts.
“If they saw somebody that did seem lost or they didn’t know where to go, what to do, to make sure to help them, so that we could expand the knowledge of the program itself, and help their friends,” Locklear said.
Lexi Razor is the principal of summer school this year. She spends the school year teaching math at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé. Razor said students from all backgrounds do the program, and that it’s good to see them become more comfortable on the large campus.
“There’s a range of kids here,” she said. “There’s kids here that don’t typically like school or go to school, and so getting them here to kind of learn the environment is going to be helpful. And then we also have kids in the program that like school and are good at school, but they’re also building some confidence.”
These programs don’t just help students. Mae DelCastillo is a parent of an incoming seventh grader. She said the program puts her at ease as it prepares her daughter for middle school.
“As a mom, it really did give me so much comfort because she’s just now mentally prepared and just excited to start middle school,” she said.
Her daughter Lucena said she’s the only person from her group of friends at Auke Bay Elementary School to do the program. She said she’s excited to show her friends how things work when the school year begins.
“My friends are gonna be like, ‘I’m so scared,’ she said. “And I’m like, ‘You’re not gonna be scared, because I’m gonna be like, right there.’”
Seventh graders do have another chance to familiarize themselves with the middle school. The district will offer a tour on Wednesday, Aug. 13 in the evening, one day before the official start of the school year.
