Catherine Comstock, Dodge Middle Magnet School principal, would divide her work between two campuses if Dodge expands to Naylor's campus.

james s. wood / arizona daily star

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The Tucson Unified School District is exploring whether it will conjoin one of its flagship middle schools and one of its most troubled next year into a school-within-a-school concept.

Dodge Middle Magnet School's back-to-basics approach has earned it an "excelling" stamp from the state and a waiting list of 200 students.

Meanwhile, after three years of underwhelming test data and a "failing" label for the last two years, Naylor Middle School has been losing students.

So just like the curiously-matched Jack Sprat and his wife were able to work together to clean a plate, a new symbiotic relationship between the two campuses could evolve if the district opens a new Dodge annex next school year in one of the empty wings at Naylor.

Dodge Principal Catherine Comstock said the move would help solve a space problem for her school, which already has about 70 students more than its capacity. And because it's 100 percent a school of choice, with no feeder neighborhood, the students who come for sixth grade overwhelmingly stay through eighth. That meant hope was slim for families waiting for an open spot.

"We're pleased to have the space — we're practically busting out of the seams," said Comstock, adding that the plan is to start with 150 sixth-grade students and then phase in the additional grade levels the following two years.

Comstock said she isn't worried that parents will eschew her program because of Naylor's stigma. "We just needed the classrooms. We intend to run our program there just as we run it here. Everything will be replicated." That means the dress code will be followed. Parents will sign the standard Dodge contract that says they understand school officials are strict about attendance and teachers may require two hours a night of homework. The annex students will be included in field trips and dances with the students from the main campus.

Firm details are still being worked out, since the first step is to gauge parental interest in the concept. But for now, Comstock said, the plan is to hire six new teachers. She will split her time between the sites, starting at Naylor in the morning because it starts earlier, and then heading to Dodge.

The concept isn't wholly new.

University High School, which serves gifted and academically focused students, has been housed at Rincon High School since 1985.

Still, merging two vastly different populations can spell trouble, as University's own history shows. University, then largely an Anglo program, was moved to Rincon from the largely minority Tucson High School after Tucson High parents filed a civil-rights complaint. Critics contended that sharing the Tucson High campus was creating inequities and their students were receiving an inferior education.

There are, indeed, some concerns with the plan. Roger Pritzke, a Dodge Spanish teacher, said the decision was sprung on teachers, who might have had good suggestions for making it work. "Everybody is shaking their heads at the concept of Naylor. It just doesn't seem an advantageous place to start it. You're taking an excelling program and putting it in a failing school, so that's real questionable logic."

Pritzke said he's also worried about the strain on Comstock and about the timing, given that many students have already chosen the schools they'll go to next year. "It just seems too little, too late, and it seems it's in the wrong place," he said.

Deputy District Superintendent Patricia Lopez countered that Naylor makes sense because it is centrally located five miles away. Other nearby schools either don't have capacity or are trying to expand their own programs, she said, and wouldn't have room. It is also more convenient for the Southwest Side, where space is in short supply. As for the timing, she said, parents usually list two or three choices in their school requests. "It is late," she said, "but parents up until mid-summer are still looking at choices."

Robyn Gaub, 51, has a seventh-grade son at Dodge. Two older boys have gone through the traditional program there, which she picked because of its emphasis on phonics while other schools were working with whole language.

Gaub is all for the expansion — in part, she said, because the current campus is overcrowded, and this could relieve some pressure. Also in part, she said, because she knows from her boys' experiences that the close-knit Dodge family can create long-lasting friendships.

But in large part, she said, she wants the program available more widely "because it works. Traditional education means it's not an experiment," Gaub said. "It's teacher-directed teaching in the classroom, and it works."

As for sharing Comstock: "She's a very competent principal, and she wouldn't do this unless she felt she could."

And what about the issue of Naylor students looking across the courtyard and wondering if the grass really is greener?

"A lot of that will have to do with their staff and their principal and how they work together with Dodge," Gaub said.

Naylor Principal Don Calhoun, who took over the school after it received its failing designation, said he considers the move a "win-win" for both schools.

Dodge will get needed space, he said, while his staff will have a chance to collaborate with a new set of teachers who run a successful model. That's important because 95 percent of the Naylor staff — from teachers to custodians to cafeteria workers — lost their jobs in the transition, so the school was essentially started from scratch last year.

Calhoun said some logistics still have to be worked out, but his focus dovetails nicely with Dodge.

As part of his restructuring push, he's stressing literacy and is re-emphasizing five core classes that all students must take — reading, language arts, math, science and social studies.

"We're trying to create a culture of excellence and high achievement, and that's where Dodge will come in, since those staff (members) are coming from that culture," Calhoun said. "I'm hopeful that it will push the envelope and push everyone up to a higher level."