Board decides on changes to middle school schedules

BY TALI ISRAELI
Staff Writer

MARLBORO — Changes to the school district’s middle school schedule have been approved by the Board of Education.

In order to increase time on task for core subjects such as math, English, science, social studies and world language, district administrators have eliminated the Educational Opportunities Program (EOP) and the Project Connection (PC) classes from pupil schedules at the Marlboro Middle School, Route 520, and the Marlboro Memorial Middle School, Nolan Road.

Administrators said the EOP classes were designed to give students the opportunity to choose elective classes in which they expressed an interest. The PC classes are interdisciplinary classes that involve hands-on projects which intertwine with the students’ core curriculum classes (i.e. math, science, English, social studies).

In recent weeks, board members and administrators from both middle schools examined several ways to increase students’ time on task in order to boost academic achievement.

Superintendent of Schools David Abbott has said that as a result of fiscal constraints, the district needs to find ways to increase pupil achievement while maintaining or decreasing costs.

The approved schedule changes involve restructuring the school day and redistributing the time from the EOP and PC classes to create more time for the core subjects. The board’s decision also involves making changes to related arts, world language and physical education classes.

The six related arts classes offered to sixth-graders are art, music, computers, home arts, applied technology and diversity. For seventh-graders, a public speaking course is added to the list, and for eighth-graders a creative writing class is added as a choice.

The approved schedule divides seventh- and eighth-graders into two groups. Group A, which will be on a semester-based schedule, includes students who are involved in creative arts, music ensembles, special education and basic skills classes. Group B, which will be on a marking period-based schedule, includes students who are not involved in any of those programs.

Group A students will take one or more of those specific courses for the entire year on an AA, BB, CC schedule, which administrators referred to as an EOP-style schedule. These students will also be randomly scheduled for related arts classes, which will change each semester. The number of related arts courses and full-year courses that students will be scheduled for is different for each individual.

Group B students will have the opportunity to select their top three related arts classes. These students will be guaranteed two non-consecutive marking periods of one of their top three choices. Related arts classes for the other two marking periods will be randomly selected for each student.

According to administrators, curriculum for the related arts classes will have to be tweaked in order to accommodate students who take the same course twice in one year, so that the curriculum is different the second time the student takes the course.

For sixth-graders, each related arts class will be scheduled for 30 consecutive days. Students will have all six related arts classes during the school year.

The schedule changes for world language and physical education classes are different for Marlboro Memorial Middle School and Marlboro Middle School.

Marlboro Memorial Middle School sixth-graders will take 120 classes of world language instruction for the year and seventh- and eighth-graders will take 210 classes of world language for the year. All classes are 42 minutes long.

Sixth-graders at Marlboro Memorial Middle School will take physical education four times per week for a total of 144 classes a year; daily physical education classes will be scheduled for seventh- and eighth-graders.

In Marlboro Middle School, sixth-graders will take 90 days of instruction in world language and physical education classes on an alternate day cycle. Seventh- and eight-graders will take both classes on a daily basis.