Administrators fine-tune middle school schedule
BY TALI ISRAELI
Staff Writer

MARLBORO — Discussions for proposed changes to the school district’s middle school schedule continued last week with Board of Education members and administrators still not seeing eye to eye.

In order to increase time on task for core subjects such as math, English, science, social studies and world language, district administrators are discussing the possibility of eliminating 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 (i.e., math, science, English, social studies) work.

Board members and administrators at both middle schools are looking at different ways to increase time on task in order to boost pupils’ academic achievement levels.

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

The proposed 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. In addition to reviewing changes to the related arts classes, the board members and administrators at both middle schools are still discussing possible schedule changes involving world language and physical education classes.

During the initial discussions, board members posed many questions in an attempt to ensure that the new schedule will be the most effective option and the best possible solution for all of Marlboro’s middle school students.

At a Jan. 10 meeting, district officials presented board members with an amended proposal to the middle school schedule which divided seventh- and eighth-graders into two groups. Group A would include students who are involved in creative arts, music ensembles, special education and basic skills classes. Group B would include students who are not involved in any of those programs.

Group A students would take those specific courses for the entire year on an AA, BB, CC schedule, which administrators referred to as an EOP style schedule.

Group B students would take all six related arts class for 30 consecutive days each.

Sixth-graders in both middle schools would have the same related arts schedule as the students in Group B.

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.

Following the presentation by administrators, board members Cynthia Green and Andrea Miller said they were not pleased with the lack of choices that students in Group B would have regarding elective courses.

According to Abbott, if more choices were provided to those students, more staff would have to be hired and the district is not in a financial position to do that.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, resident Ronna Torkel said this proposal only addresses the needs of certain students, not all students. Torkel said she understands that the district is under fiscal constraints, but said she does not understand why students who play an instrument would receive special treatment over students who do not have those particular interests.

“We’re all jumping through hoops for a kid that plays the tuba,” she said.

Board members did not seem to object to any of the proposed changes made to the scheduling of physical education and world language classes.

If the proposal was approved, Marlboro Memorial Middle School sixth-graders would take 120 classes of world language instruction for the year and seventh- and eighth-graders would take 210 classes of world language for the year. All classes run 42 minutes.

Sixth-graders at Marlboro Memorial Middle School would 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 would take 90 days of instruction in world language and physical education classes on an alternate day cycle. Seventh- and eighth-graders will take both classes on a daily basis.

Administrators are expected to come before the board again with an amended proposal regarding the middle school class schedule after they have addressed the concerns expressed by the board members.