The superintendent presented to the School Committee’s long-range planning subcommittee Thursday night with his initial ideas about restructuring the middle grades.

Superintendent Tony Pierantozzi suggested six arrangements that presupposed changing the makeup of the six elementary schools. One involved creating three kindergarten-through-fourth-grade schools and three fifth-through-eighth-grade ones. Another called for two sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade schools and five kindergarten-through-fifth-grade schools.

However, Pierantozzi suggested another idea: busing students in the middle grades to different school buildings to participate in Advanced Placement classes, remedial instruction or extracurricular activities. He said it was a less efficient but also less disruptive way to draw a large number of students together and enhance their education. School Committee members were intrigued.  

At a previous meeting, the committee had asked the superintendent to come up with ways to restructure the middle grades to increase the number of academic, music, art and athletic programs available to them. The request seeks to fulfill the committee’s goal of creating “a groundbreaking, exciting middle grades instructional program.”

Members, as well as parents, have continually discussed the need to “beef up” the education in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades to prevent families from leaving the district for charter schools or public schools in places like Belmont that boast higher MCAS scores.

However, the superintendent said instruction has improved over the last few years in part because of the district’s efforts to coach teachers.

“This year, middle school standardized tests are outstanding,” Pierantozzi said. “This doesn’t mean we don’t have issues; we do.”

He framed the proposed reconfigurations as a means to fill gaps in education, like foreign language classes.

Idea intrigues School Committee members
Committee member Mark Niedergang has long endorsed making major changes to the middle grades.

“Even if the academic rigor has improved, there’s a range of other things that we want for those kids, and we can’t do without having larger groups of them,” he said. “At that age, kids need a lot more than to be doing academically well. They need a whole bunch of broader experiences to prepare them for high school and life.”

However, Niedergang said that he liked the superintendent’s idea to bus students to programs instead of restructuring the district’s schools to “address the middle grades without blowing the whole thing up.”

Member Paul Bockelman also sympathized with the idea, saying that reconfiguring the whole district would be too disruptive to families.

Chairman Adam Sweeting wrapped up the discussion.

“People are intrigued by this idea,” he said, “but I’d like to see these other ideas fleshed out.”

The superintendent will present the committee with detailed options to revamp the middle grades in the fall.