Ryan needs four more SHS teachers
Published on December 24th, 1997
STONEHAM, MA - In his annual presentation of course additions and deletions, Stoneham High School Principal Thomas Ryan requested of the School Committee, on Thursday night, the equivalent of four additional staff members in order to move from a seven period to eight period school day for high school students for the 1998-1999 school year.
With the high school still in a transition mode to Educational Reform's Time and Learning requirements, the move to an eight period day will result in students graduating from high school with a total of 120 course credits. According to Ryan, if the additional staff is not provided, the move to an eight-period day can only be done with the filling in of study halls, but and learning requirements," stated Ryan. Stoneham High last year committed to transitioning to the Time and Learning program, which requires secondary schools to provide 990 hours of "directed" study each year. Ryan stated that this past September, the high school was not prepared to meet the state's time and learning requirements deadline. However, with block scheduling and the additional courses, "things are in place" to now meet those requirements in September of 1998, as long as approval for funding the additional staff is approved by the School Committee. Ryan continued by advising the committee of a list, which is published each year, of schools who have not met these requirements and referred to it as "not a list to be on." In order to come up with the additional courses, departments were instructed to develop their course suggestions which were then surveyed by students in grades 8 through 11 who were asked which courses they would be interested in taking. The resultant list was comprised of courses that Assistant Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Keroack called "wonderful entry points for future career choices." Some of the course additions are Graphic Arts, Health Careers,
Sports Officiating, Applications for the Graphing Calculator, Computer Applications, Exploring the Environment, Community Service/Peer Leadership, Film Study, and American Sign Language. While School Committee members concurred with Keroack on the selections, member Jeanne Craigie stated that the request posed a "dilemma," and that a decision on the funding could not be made without seeing the "whole budget picture." School Committee Chairman Stephen Gucciardi agreed with Craigie and stated that the implications of funding the additional staff would result in "trade-offs else where." Ryan stated he would be "very disappointed to not do this because of funding," citing the amount of work and coordination involved in putting the course selections together. The committee voted approval on the course offerings "pending further approval" of the additional staff funding once the budget for the academic year 1998-1999 has been worked out.
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