SALEM – The MSAD 58 school board heard a presentation from the Mt. Abram High School principal Thursday evening, on a proposal to add a seminar period to the end of each school day.
The proposed schedule would maintain the four class periods, slightly reduce the time for lunch and re-purpose the Mountain Time period and reading days to create space for 30-minute seminar classes. This would attempt to address issues of student access of double-block classes, following a 22 percent increase in scheduled study halls and five new course offerings: personal finance, biomedical science, honors English, honors chemistry and computer programing. It would also offer teachers a preparation period each day.
Mountain Time, an advisory period designed to connect teachers with students on subjects such as portfolios, academic checks and senior projects, would continue to meet twice a week.
MAHS Principal Marco Aliberti said that the seminar would assist the district in its transition to a proficiency-based education system, and he envisioned the seminar subject matter changing each quarter. Possible subjects could include math and English support, gifted and talented programming, conversational Spanish and French and grade-specific subjects such as Introduction to High School for freshmen, SAT prep and a senior seminar to allow students to work on their projects.
The seminar would be a pass/fail course, Aliberti said, and worth .125 credit a quarter and .25 a semester.
The school board will need to decide quickly whether it wants to embrace the new master schedule proposal or not, as students will soon need to sign up for classes.
“We’re under the gun to take care of this because we’re running out of time,” Aliberti said.
The board will meet with the Mt. Abram Teachers Association to discuss the change.
