By DAN TOMASELLO

LYNNFIELD — Lynnfield High School is looking to offer new electives for the 2024-2025 academic year, Principal Patricia Puglisi said during the School Committee’s Jan. 9 meeting.

Puglisi said the high school is moving towards a semester-based schedule next year.

“Students will either have a semester-long class or a yearlong class,” said Puglisi. “We are going to require students to enroll in 30 credits per year. It is currently 27.5, which automatically leads to two studies in one semester for each student. If we increase that to 30 credits, then that is one study per student. The exception will be for the seniors because of the way gym will work for them. They may have two studies at different points during the year, but I prefer the seniors to have that given our staffing. They are working on their college applications and have a lot going on, but we should be fully engaging our underclassmen.”

Puglisi said the high school will be eliminating class rank next year. She said two students who serve on the School Council as well as a student who wrote an op-ed in the school newspaper, The Catalyst, recommended that class rank be eliminated.

“I did a survey of the Cape Ann League schools, and I could only find one other school, which is Amesbury Innovation High School, which is part of Amesbury Public Schools but is separate from Amesbury High School, that discloses class rank,” said Puglisi. “There was an op-ed in the school newspaper that talked about the stress that it causes to have class rank disclosed to students. We will publish deciles as a transition so students can see who is in the top 10 percent or top 20 percent. It really does put a lot of stress on the students. We are proposing to do away with that if we receive the School Committee’s blessing.”

School Committee member Phil McQueen said eliminating class rank “makes a lot of sense.” He inquired if class rank gets reported to colleges and universities.

“Colleges are going to recalculate a student’s GPA anyway, so that number means nothing to them,” said Puglisi. “Sometimes it can come into play when students are applying for scholarships.”

School Committee Chair Kate DePrizio supported Puglisi’s recommendation that class rank be eliminated.

“When I first saw it, I thought it would be a big change for some people who are used to it and I was curious about how it will be received,” said DePrizio. “In our latest meetings with the Health and Wellness Committee, we have talked at length about the level of anxiety we are seeing in students that is beyond what we have even talked about the last three years. We are now having nurses take a course so they can be a first-tier trauma triage nurse for those with anxiety and depression. If we are not seeing it be effective for colleges, this is a clear choice to eliminate some of that stress for them.”

School Committee Vice Chair Jamie Hayman agreed.

“I have a junior and I got to see the seniors when class rank was released this year,” said Hayman. “It’s incredibly stressful. I think that will make a big difference and will help our students.”

Puglisi also said the high school wants to give special education students who are enrolled in certain programs credit for the work they complete.

“Students scheduled into specific special education programs have not been receiving credit for the work they do in those programs,” said Puglisi. “We are adding pass/fail grades and credits for that work.”

Puglisi said the high school is looking to add seven English electives for the next academic year. She said the English Department wants to expand an SAT Prep course focused on the standardized test’s evidence-based reading and writing (ERW) component. She also said the English Department wants to add Public Speaking, Creative Writing, Drama 1, Drama 2, Journalism 1 and Journalism 2 electives.

“These are electives that were offered in the past for seniors,” said Puglisi. “We are going to be offering them in grades 9-12, and students will have the opportunity to retake classes such as journalism if students have a passion for that and want to continue. All classes will be heterogeneously grouped, so that means students can take the class for honors or college prep credit.”

McQueen asked if students had any input on the new English electives.

Puglisi said the students who serve on the School Council weighed in on the new English electives, but she wants more student input on course changes going forward.

“I want to see more student voice, but as a start, I wanted to get a gage from the teachers on what we have, what can we do, what are we passionate about and what have we seen students drawn to in the past,” said Puglisi. “That is where we spent much of our time.”

Hayman asked if the new electives can be offered with the high school’s existing staffing. He also asked if the faculty is “on board” with the new electives.

Puglisi said yes.

“We are not looking to have huge class sizes to do this,” said Puglisi. “We are going to stay within our target range of 18 to 22 students in a class, with 24 being a max. We feel that we can provide these offerings within that.”

Puglisi also said the high school is looking to make changes to the alignment of physical education and health programs.

“Right now, if you are a grade 9 student, you take PE and health every other day for a year,” said Puglisi. “I have met with the health teachers about this several times. They would like to see PE in grade 9 because students have health in middle school. Ninth-graders tend to need a little bit more movement, so we are going to offer a semester of PE. In grades 10 and 11, we will do semester-based health and PE.”

Due to the high school’s current staffing, Puglisi said LHS is looking to offer quarter-long gym electives for seniors.

Puglisi said the Fine and Performing Arts Department is looking to offer new music courses such as Music Composition, Music Theory, Vocal Lab and is looking to bring back the Guitar Ensemble course.

“Our goal is to have all of band and chorus scheduled during the same block,” said Puglisi. “If a student wants to be in both, they can. The teachers feel that this will provide a full band program and they can also differentiate with the smaller ensembles. Doing that allows us to offer more electives.”

Puglisi said the Fine and Performing Arts Department is also looking to offer a new set design class next year. She said the high school will be offering its Advanced Placement (AP) 2D Drawing and Design course as a yearlong class.

“We are making that a full-year program because the numbers in our art program are increasing,” said Puglisi. “We are going from five students in AP Art to 20 in the coming year. It’s really amazing. Our teachers have had tremendous success, so we want to expand that.”

Puglisi said the high school is looking to “move around” its math and computer science courses. She met with representatives from the nonprofit organization Project Lead the Way on Jan. 11 in hopes of getting a grant to start a yearlong Introduction to Engineering course.

“They will provide the resources if we do receive the grant,” said Puglisi. “Our teacher, Audrey Coats, is all in on teaching that course. She is also applying to be part of the AP Career Kickstart program for Cybersecurity.”

Puglisi also said the high school is looking to offer a new Math for the Trades semester-long course as well as a Technology Support Fundamentals class, the latter of which she said will build on the Technology Department’s Student Help Desk program.

“Media Specialist Janice Alpert is looking to create a program where students become interns for four years,” said Puglisi.    

The high school is also looking to offer a new yearlong College Programming and Computer Science class.

Puglisi said Contemporary Hispanic Culture and Traditions will be a new Level 4 world language class offered at the high school next year. The History/Social Science Department is also looking to bring back Pop Culture as a semester-long elective course. She said World Studies and Current Events will be switched from a yearlong class to a semester-long class.

Looking ahead, Puglisi said she wants to hire a .5 full-time equivalent (FTE) health teacher and .7 FTE social studies teacher for the high school. She also said LHS wants to offer robotics courses.

“I understand the budget is very tight, so these are on our wish list,” said Puglisi.

McQueen expressed his support for the LHS Program of Studies.

“This is great,” said McQueen. “I think what is key for moving forward with this is scheduling. That is not the most exciting thing in the world, but it drives the bus. I applaud the expansion of the electives and the streamlining going on.”

Hayman said he “appreciated” that Puglisi incorporated the LHS School Council’s feedback into the Program of Studies.

“That is the collaborative nature that we are looking for,” said Hayman. “I also love that this is within our current budget. There is a lot of stuff we can do, and I think there is a lot of opportunity with what we have. We have a lot of really talented teachers at the high school, and drawing off their interests to support things such as journalism, drama and performing arts is where we want to take the district.”

DePrizio said she appreciated that Puglisi included teacher and student feedback when developing the Program of Studies.

The School Committee will be voting on the LHS Program of Studies on Wednesday, Jan. 24.