Social interaction, discipline concern parents

At the February 23, 2012, meeting of the Odessa School Board, board members and administrators heard the concerns of several parents of 5th-grade students.

Odessa 5th-graders this year do not have just one 5th-grade teacher in a single classroom. Instead, they have lockers and go to different classrooms for different subjects taught under different teachers, just as junior-high students do.

After second-grade teacher Bev Scherr retired a year ago, the administration opted not to hire a replacement and shifted the other elementary teachers around, leaving the fifth grade without a teacher. Pare...