Middle School Changing To Trimester Schedule

Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School students will have that opportunity to take more elective classes such as foreign languages and art beginning next year, as the school is switching to a trimester schedule.

Middle School Principal Tom Brow told the Melrose School Committee on Tuesday night, while presenting next year's school handbook, that students go "off their teams" twice a day to "non-team" classes, which are electives such as German or band.

"With limited staff, not everybody got to go to everything," Brow said. "Once you went to band, to German, you might not have opportunity for art or technology. It has been a concern in the community. We listened to those concerns and we did something about it — we went to trimesters."

Instead of those elective courses being half-year courses, they'll now be roughly three month courses, with the first trimester ending in late November, the second ending in March and the third ending in June. Students will now rotate through more elective classes, Brow said.

"We want at the middle school  age to give students a broader and wider exploratory experience," he said. "More students will have opportunity to have health, computers, arts, design and engineering, technology and all of the non-team classes we offer in our schools."

School Committee member Carrie Kourkoumelis said she was "thrilled" to see the new trimester system in place before asking if there was any way to link the middle school and high school other than through the orchestra program, so that students seeking additional challenges can avail themselves of the high school's resources.

Brow responded that the school actually "went in an opposite direction." Next year, for the first time, the middle school will offer honors math in the sixth grade and, in the eighth grade, a level above honors algebra.

"Because of the acceleration of kids this year at Melrose Middle School above grade level, rather than send them off to a comprehensive high school whose schedule doesn't match, and the age appropriateness might not be right ... we need to provide those opportunities right in our own building," he said.

Asked by Kourkoumelis about the few students who may need even greater challenges, Superintendent Joe Casey said Melrose is partnering with Wakefield Public Schools to offer virtual high school opportunities that middle school students could also take advantage of.

"We'll talk to them (Wakefield) about how they did it and talk about building that in," Casey said.

The new handbook also adds further restrictions to the school's dress code. The new restrictions are:

• Beach flip flops and sandals are not allowed for safety reasons. 
• Low hanging pants are not allowed.
• The dress code for all gym classes includes sneakers; students must wear sneakers to gym class.