Unique year at Finney School, half century ago

A graduation party last week got me thinking about a unique school year that wrapped up 50 years ago. It was the year Finney School transitioned from K-8 to a [[mostly) 9-12 high school. I don’t recall if they brought in 12th or even 11th graders that first year, what I remember is the unique treatment of the previous year’s 6th and [[I believe) 7th graders from Finney.

They kept us on at Finney, a small group of 7th and 8th graders among all those ‘much older’ kids [[didn’t 2 years seem like a lot at that age?) I recall the first day, moving between tables staffed by mostly-unknown teachers, trying to sign up for 7th grade classes. Some of them told us we were in the wrong school and shouldn’t be there at all, only to be overruled by someone better informed.

As you’d expect, most - but I think not all - the teaching staff changed. From 7th grade I recall [[spelling probably wrong…) Mr. Koladisa [[science) and Mr. Georgakis [[social studies / history) who might have previously been at Finney. And I’m thinking now that Mr. Maroukian may have remained.

Administration may also have brought in some other ‘middle school’ age kids [[didn’t use that term at that time, tho) from nearby elementaries [[Marquette, Hanstein, etc.), but I don’t think so. If you know better, please correct me. I’d love to see responses from anyone else involved in this odd little arrangement. I was only there the one year, my family then moved to the ‘burbs.