Starting in fall, sixth-grade students from George Brown Jr. Elementary School will attend the nearby middle school as the district looks to alleviate overcrowding.
At its meeting May 20, the San Bernardino City Unified School Board unanimously moved to change George Brown, Jr. Elementary School to a TK-fifth grade school by moving the sixth-grade program to Arrowview Middle School next door.
The middle school already serves sixth- through eighth-grade students.
“The purpose of this change is to alleviate overcrowding and a substantial lack of facilities and classrooms at Brown Elementary,” MaryRone Goodwin, spokesperson for the district wrote in a May 22 email. “Incoming 6th-grade students who would have attended Brown will attend nearby Arrowview Middle School.”
In a Friday, May 23 interview, Board member Danny Tillman said this is a routine action and it has been done in the past to accommodate overcrowding.
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Students arrives at George Brown Jr. Elementary School at the start of the day, Friday, May 23, 2025. Beginning this fall, the school’s sixth grade program will move to Arrowview Middle School to help ease overcrowding on the elementary campus in San Bernardino. (Contributing Photographer/John Valenzuela)
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Students arrives at George Brown Jr. Elementary School at the start of the day, Friday, May 23, 2025. Beginning this fall, the school’s sixth grade program will move to Arrowview Middle School to help ease overcrowding on the elementary campus in San Bernardino. (Contributing Photographer/John Valenzuela)
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While it is generally acknowledged that sixth graders do better at an elementary school, he said, when the space is not there students have to be moved.
Tillman said during his time on the board the district built an additional 17 schools to meet a capacity of 60,000 students. Even with steady enrollment the district has space, he said, but there are some areas where enrollment is impacted and adjustments need to be made.
“We have the space, but in certain areas we have to make it work,” Tillman said.
Parents looking to keep their sixth-grade students in an elementary school can seek accommodation, he said.
Moving to middle schools earlier can give students more time to acclimate and in some cases puts them in the same school as their siblings, Tillman said.
The middle school currently has the ability to accommodate 1,995 students in permanent and portable buildings, according to an April 15 district staff report. Current enrollment is 918 students, the report says.
There is open space for 1,077 additional students at the campus, the reports says, even with the additional 42 students projected for the next school year, which would increase the student population to 960.
Even if all the projected sixth-grade students at the elementary school enroll at the middle school in the upcoming school year, “there is sufficient capacity at the Middle School to absorb all of the sixth-grade students,” the report reads.
