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As Newton school prepares to drop sixth-grade journalism class, teacher, parents warn of the likely toll on a student institution

On the front page of the April 16 edition of The Daytime, the newspaper itself is placed at the very center of a bull's-eye, targeted by steel darts that threaten obliteration of the popular Newton middle school broadsheet. Next to the graphic, an article penned by student journalists ponders the potential demise of the newspaper.

The source of the threat: Administrators are planning to restructure the schedules at all four of the city's middle schools, which cover grades 6 through 8, in September. The proposal would eliminate sixth-grade journalism classes at F.A. Day Middle School in Newtonville. Currently, an elective journalism course is offered to the Day's sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders, who spend class time reporting, writing, editing, selling advertising space, and laying out the award-winning paper.

Further, the longtime senior adviser to The Daytime, Robert Provencher, is being reassigned, a move that he said would leave him no time for student journalism - and would effectively kill the publication.

Provencher - "Prov" to his students - said a similar proposal came up three years ago but was headed off after students marched on City Hall.

"I'm just absolutely sick of it," said Provencher, who has been working in the Newton school district for 40 years. "I'm really tired of it. Honest to God, they can fire me as far as I'm concerned. This is an award-winning newspaper. It is unique in America."

Parents are writing to administrators and organizing meetings to save the paper, which is in its 27th year of operation at the school.

Claudia Wu is fighting for the newspaper because she has seen how much it means to her seventh-grade daughter, Katie, who was one of the writers of the front-page article about the looming changes. Her daughter has chased down US Senator Edward Kennedy for quotes, and called the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign in the course of her work on The Daytime, she said.

"It's been an unbelievable experience for her," said Wu. "This has been, I think, an opportunity for her to work with critical thinking, and leadership, and interviewing techniques, and writing, and teamwork. These are real-life skills that kids are learning because they have to produce something every month."

The scheduling changes are not the result of budget cuts, but instead stem from an effort to provide a more equitable experience for all of Newton's middle school students, according to Gina Healy, F.A. Day's principal.

"We've offered very disparate programs at the four middle schools without any particular rhyme or reason," she said. "They've grown organically, rather than in a systematic way."

The changes, which have been in the works for about three years, are driven by a national educational effort known as Breaking Ranks in the Middle, she said. The city's middle school teachers collectively decided to align their curriculums and schedules more closely so that they can be shared among the schools and so that all of their students will have the same opportunities, Healy said.

As an example of the changes, Chinese language courses will be offered at all four schools starting next year, Healy said, after being available at only two of the schools last year and three this year.

Another change calls for sixth-graders to spend more class time on language arts and math, which will replace the journalism elective, she said. Sixth-grade students will still have electives, but they will be in technology, art, music, health, and drama, and will be the same in all four middle schools.

The idea is that sixth-graders can still participate in the newspaper, but as a club rather than during class time, she said.

"We're not looking to be all drill and kill," said Healy. "That's not what we've ever been about. No one has said anything about dismantling the paper except Mr. Provencher. The seventh- and eighth-grade elective will continue."

Healy did not agree with Provencher's statement that his reassignment would leave him no time to teach journalism to the older students next year. She said she is asking him to teach four English periods daily, which she said would give him time for the journalism classes as part of a full workload.

Provencher said he feels he is being asked to do two jobs for the price of one, because much of the time he gives to the newspaper is already pro bono.

"If they want to reassign me, that's all fine and good, but they're going to be taking someone who is a recognized expert in middle school journalism and hiding me away in an eighth-grade English classroom," he said. "I mean, what is with this?"

Provencher said he filed a grievance through his union regarding the reassignment, and noted that it is scheduled to be heard tomorrow morning. Healy would not comment on the grievance.

His salary represents most of the newspaper's cost to the district, Provencher said, since the printing is covered by the ads that the students sell.

"If this is parity or equality, it's a sham," said Provencher, "because it means we're lowering everything to the lowest common denominator, rather than elevating it to the highest denominator."

Healy and Provencher don't seem to agree on much. And parents have noticed.

"He's a difficult guy to work with, I have to be perfectly blunt," said Lisa Cohen, a parent liaison for the newspaper. "He's a controversial kind of guy. I respect the work he does with the kids. My 12-year-old has a passion for the paper that he wouldn't have without Prov.

"We've tried to focus this on the paper and the kids and not on the egos, and I say 'egos' plural," Cohen added.

Healy declined to discuss her relationship with Provencher.

Provencher did not dispute Cohen's characterization.

"I'm really passionate about what I do," he said. "I see my mission as very clear, and that is to enable kids to have a voice in print, and that can sometimes translate into a perception of stubbornness. It goes with the territory."

Cohen agreed with Provencher that the newspaper would not be the same without the sixth-graders taking part, but beyond that, she said, she doesn't understand why parents weren't involved in discussing any of what she considers to be enormous changes.

She said she and other parents only found out a few weeks ago, when fifth-graders received notices that the journalism class would not be one of their options in the fall.

"I'm incredibly frustrated at the way in which this particular curriculum decision has been implemented," said Cohen. "There has been almost no official communication from the principal to the parent community or the student community as this was being considered."

Healy acknowledged that parents were not involved. She said the changes were originally slated for the fall of next year, but, because of some technology and staffing issues related to creating the new schedules, it was decided in March that they would take effect in September.

The Daytime won its eighth consecutive Gold Crown award this year from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

Reached at the association's headquarters in New York, Edmund Sullivan, its executive director, said Newton has an extraordinarily strong tradition of journalism at both the middle and high school levels.

However, Massachusetts and the Northeast in general are weak when it comes to school journalism, he said.

"The trouble they will have is New England has an attitude that all of these publications are just clubs, just afterschooly things that can be just done away with and that they're not necessary," he said.

The attitude trickles down from the region's colleges, he said, adding that most of them do not value journalism as highly as schools in other parts of the country.

"In a world of the Google haystack, the fundamentals of old-fashioned journalism are more relevant today, not only to journalists but to all students of liberal arts," said Sullivan. "I think in today's world . . . it's just critical that you teach young people how to use information and how to extract the value out of information, because they are bombarded with information more than any of us at an older age were."

Unlike their real-world counterparts, school newspapers are thriving, he said, and young students are bullish on their job opportunities because they embrace all kinds of communications media, including the Internet.

Healy said she values The Daytime and feels it will work fine under the new plan.

"I think the newspaper is fabulous," she said. "It's a source of pride for our community. The newspaper gives kids a great opportunity to feel good about themselves. It gives them a chance to explore real journalism and to understand how a small business operates."

Lisa Kocian can be reached at 508-820-4231 or lkocian@globe.com.

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