At the beginning of the 2023-24 school year, Frisco ISD opened the doors of its first-ever intermediate school. Shauna K. Wortham Intermediate School is the first of its kind in Frisco ISD. Planned initially as another FISD Middle School, the three-story campus was built as a transitional program between elementary and middle school, taking fifth graders from nearby Ogle, Comstock, and Elliott elementary schools, as well as sixth graders originally bound for Scoggins, Vandeventer, and Lawler Middle Schools.

“It’s a soft opening to the secondary education program,” Wortham Principal Michael Thomas said, “Students learn to navigate classes on all three floors.”

Wortham will introduce a blend of class structures with the fifth and sixth-grade classes mimicking elementary and middle school schedules, respectively. For example, they will be keeping recess for the fifth-grade students and keeping them on a specials rotation, which now includes a new STEAM class. This class with also be offered to sixth graders who get more choice within their class schedules, with Wortham offering multiple electives students can choose from. 

“The intermediate school will provide students with a level of independence and free movement that is not achieved in a traditional elementary school and may be too overwhelming in middle school,” Thomas says.

With Wortham’s combination of students from different schools, they have implemented a house team system reminiscent of one already implemented in local middle schools to build camaraderie between students who may not know each other.

“All students are randomly selected for one of the six houses,” Thomas said, “Through pep rallies and house competitions, we will unite the many elementary schools that are merged together at our campus.”

Wortham opened its doors to over 860 students in the 2023-24 school year and will continue to utilize a unique approach not seen in Frisco ISD, blending an elementary and middle school schedule and curriculum for its students. Additionally, they will use house teams, a tradition normally reserved for eighth-grade students, to build a unique culture to prepare students for success in middle school. Wortham students are also often zoned for Emerson High School, with the curriculum being strongly based on the project-based learning they are bound to encounter in the future.

“Students are learning an inquiry mindset to help them acclimate to the project-based learning included in the high school level,” Thomas said.