The KFCS district adopted the New Education System model in September in an effort to boost student test scores at Mills Elementary School and Ponderosa Middle School, where they've been declining for years.
It's a national model that began in Houston and was revamped for the smaller, rural district, creating the Klamath Falls City New Education School (KFCNES) model.
It includes things like hiring copy clerks so teachers can spend more time on instruction, doing daily checks to evaluate students’ understanding of new material and hiring apprentice teachers to cover for absent staff and allow administrators to spend more time in classrooms.
But some parents have pulled their students out of the district, saying the model has "institutionalized" the schools and kids are "shoved through like cattle."
Vanessa Pate removed her three children from the district days after school started. She said her oldest son, in special education, particularly struggled with the structure.
"He kept a calendar all summer long of how many more days there were until he got to go back to school. He loved to be at school," she said. "And in less than 12 days, that attitude completely shifted, and he hated everything about that building."
Under the new model, the district got rid of its behavior resource classroom, which she said had helped her son when he became overwhelmed.
Pate said for the 12 days her son attended this year, he received 14 behavioral referrals and was suspended four times because of behavior related to his disabilities and diagnoses.
"He had a lot of negative self-talk around school, a lot of negativity about school. He felt like the people who used to support him at school no longer supported him and just saw him as a burden," she said.
She said her other two children started to hate school too.
"It was such a negative. Every morning was so negative that it wasn't worth it," she said. "It wasn't worth their mental health. It wasn't worth my mental health."
District Superintendent Keith Brown acknowledged the changes are hard, but said the model is working well for special education students and will ultimately have a positive impact.
"I've been an administrator for 34 years, and so I've seen a lot of things come and go. None of them are the silver penny that fixes everything. But sometimes, if you're just focusing on the work, no matter what the focus is, you tend to improve what you're doing instead of doing the same old thing day after day," he said. "I'm not saying this is the best thing in the whole world. It's just we saw it make massive improvements in the toughest parts of Houston."
Ponderosa 8th grader Laycee Crist-Graham submitted public comment to the Oct. 12 school board meeting, writing, "I no longer look forward to coming to school, and there are times when I genuinely hate having to go. The rules, structure, and environment have made me feel like I have very little freedom or control over my own school experience."
Hannah McGillic pulled her 6th grade son out of Ponderosa after two weeks, calling the rigid structure "institutionalized."
"It wasn't worth it. It wasn't worth his attitude going to school," he said. "I didn't like how they were like shoved through like cattle."
Some of the changes parents complain about are details the superintendent praises.
Having a line run down the hallways, with students walking silently on one side or the other, has decreased discipline referrals and made the hallways quieter and the students better behaved, Brown said.
Requiring students to carry a traffic cone to the bathroom and place it outside the door allows teachers to monitor how many students are there at once and prevents crowds from gathering and students from vaping, according to Brown.
But mother Carolyn Moon sees it as, "Poor kids having to carry a big, giant, huge cone of shame that says 'I have to use the bathroom.' I think a more appropriate-sized hall pass would be better."
According to McGillic, students only get three bathroom passes per quarter, although Brown said that's not true.
He believes the new model will lead to positive outcomes for students, and the district is still making adjustments as needed.
"We've had a few bumpy weeks where people have been frustrated, but I've been a superintendent now for over 22 years, so it's always that way," he said. "No matter what you change, even if it's just like recess duty or something, it's at first a little bumpy along the road."
He isn't worried about parents leaving the district over the model, saying enrollment at Mills has increased this year. He expects it to take about two years for the district to see a real increase in its test scores, based on data from Houston.
In 2023-2024 school year, only about 9 percent of students at Mills were proficient in math.
The two schools also have high rates of poverty and students with disabilities.
"It'd have been easy just to keep doing what we're doing and watching videos and doing movies all day long," Brown said. "But the kids weren't learning, so we're trying something different."
As Houston Public Media reports, NES has earned both praise and criticism in Texas, including concerns about high teacher turnover and enrollment declines.
