Splitting Grade Six Fosters a Healthier Environment for Education

Caption: The 6B students enter their new classroom excitedly and wonder what it would be like now having a smaller class. [by Nathanael Agcaoili]

by Nathanael Agcaoili

For the 2025-2026 school year, the leadership at PACA had decided to split the sixth grade into two classes officially at the beginning of the second quarter to accommodate the growing demand for enrollment in the class of 2032.

Much thought and contemplation was put into the decision and ultimately they came to the consensus that it would be better for the sixth grade class to be divided into two. Joel Rast, who is the middle school coordinator and the homeroom teacher for 6A, stated the reason for the split was directly related to the future goal for growth at PACA. 

“PACA’s goal is to double as a school so that we can have more students who are becoming disciples of Jesus Christ,” Rast said.

With 33 students currently enrolled in sixth grade, PACA needed to be able to accommodate more students, thus impacting this decision. However, this was not the only factor that was considered. The benefits of having smaller classes also played a big role in the decision.

“One of the great benefits is smaller classes. I think everyone has seen how much better it is and how much easier it is to learn with smaller classes,” Rast said. “Both teachers and students like it and it is just better for learning.”

In a smaller class, students tend to perform better because there are fewer students and fewer distractions as well. Davi Oliveira is a sixth grade student who had expressed this exact thought.

Oliveira said, “In a smaller group we can learn better because there are fewer people for the teacher to give attention to.”

Several sixth graders expressed bittersweet emotions about this change. They are sad that they have to separate classes, but they understand that this change will help them in the long run and are happy to experience new things.

The process of splitting the sixth grade into two classes is now complete. The two homeroom teachers are Joel Rast for 6A and Guilherme Moisés for 6B. It is the first ever middle school class in PACA to need a split. 

This decision is a big step in the expansion plans for the  bigger school that PACA can become. As PACA continues to expand and more teachers are hired to provide instruction to split classes, it can be safe to expect more grades to split in the near future.