LW_0130

JANUARY 30, 2020
WEEKLYNEWS.NET - 978-532-5880 5
School Program of Studies approved
BY ANNE MARIE TOBIN
The School Committee
voted unanimously Jan. 21 to
accept a new Lynnfield High
School Program of Studies
for the 2020-2021 year.
Among the program
name changes were Foreign
Language is now World
Language; History is now
History and Social Science,
and Guidance is now School
Counseling and Guidance.
Physics CP will now be offered
to juniors as well as seniors,
while the math sequence
has also been rearranged with
seniors now having the option
of taking statistics.
The program had been
presented to the board at its
Jan. 7 meeting by Principal
Bob Cleary, who noted that a
great majority of the changes
were semantics in nature or
simple name changes.
Fire safety
money awarded
WEEKLY NEWS REPORT
The town will receive more
than $6,000 in state safety
grant money geared toward
protecting children and older
adults across Massachusetts
from fires.
The Lynnfield Fire
Department is among 235 departments
across the state to
receive Student Awareness of
Fire Education (S.A.F.E) and
Senior SAFE grants; six communities
will receive S.A.F.E.
grants only; and seven communities
will receive Senior
SAFE grants only.
The grants include $3,965
in S.A.F.E. money and $2,348
in Senior SAFE money.
“Since 1995, the S.A.F.E.
program has brought fire
education to hundreds of
thousands of students in
the Commonwealth,” said
Governor Charlie Baker.
“This program allows firefighters
and teachers to
work together to provide fire
and life safety education to
young people.”
The average number of
children dying in fires annually
has dropped by 76
percent since the S.A.F.E.
Program began. The Senior
SAFE program is in its
sixth year, providing firefighters
with the funding to
deliver fire safety education
to another vulnerable
population – seniors.
“The S.A.F.E. and Senior
SAFE programs are successful
because we have
trained firefighters who
deliver education to children
and older adults. The
fire departments being supported
in these public education
efforts are increasing
the safety of the people in
their communities,” said
state Fire Marshal Peter J.
Ostroskey.
The S.A.F.E. Program provides
$1.2 million through
the Executive Office of the
Public Safety and Security
to local fire departments.
The Senior SAFE program
provides $600,000 in grant
funds from fees paid by tobacco
companies to the
Fire Standard Compliant
Cigarette Program to ensure
their products meet the fire
safety requirements to be
sold in Massachusetts. The
programs are administered
by the state’s Department of
Fire Services.
“Home visits, smoke and
CO alarm installations, and
fire safety presentations
at senior centers by firefighters
with senior agencies
help older adults develop
strategies to stay safe
at home for longer,” said
Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito.
“Physics used to be only
for seniors, but this gives
kids more flexibility so
that by the time of the senior
year they are free to
take other elective courses,
such as forensics,” Cleary
said. “Sometimes physics
classes get overloaded
with seniors. If maybe a
few more take it as a junior
then they are taking something
else as a senior and
freeing up space.”
Cleary said the option
for seniors to take statistics
gives students another
option besides pre-calculus.
He said students on
the honors track, typically
take AL Calculus or AP
statistics, but students who
struggle with math had no
real options for a more
fundamental fourth-year
match class.
“A kid that kind of struggles
with their math as a
junior, getting into pre-calc
as a senior can be a real
struggle, and, again, the
student that says ‘I'm not
going to be an engineering
major,’ so I don't need that
technicality of calculus or
pre-calculus,” said Cleary.
“CP statistics will give
those students something
fundamental that is more
useful if you are going
into business or something
less technical. We think it
might be a better fit going
into college and also adds a
little bit more flexibility.”
An Honors level Chamber
Singers class has also been
added.
Cleary said this is in response
to the fact that there
is increased demand on
what Chamber Singers are
doing performance-wise as
well on the level of expectations
with respect to quality.
“We've gone back and
forth on it, but we thought
why not allow them to get
honors credit because they
are doing so much more,”
said Cleary.
Cleary said the biggest
change was to “flipflop”
Algebra 2, currently
taken by 10th graders, and
Geometry, currently taken
by ninth-graders.
“We go through this
every year and to be honest
with you, it's kind of one of
those things I don't know
why we didn't do this earlier,”
said Cleary.
Cleary said the decision
will make for a smoother
transition for eighthgraders,
who currently take
Algebra 1.
“They then go into geometry
in the ninth grade, which
is conceptually very different,”
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said Cleary. “We thought the
better transition would be to go
from Algebra 1 in the eighth
grade straight to Algebra 2 in
the ninth so it's something a
little more consistent.”
Other changes included
using more consistent language
in the English course
descriptors and updating the
AP Art descriptors.
Cleary acknowledged that
despite the addition of a
full-time computer science
teacher, student demand to
take computer science still
is not being met. He added
that 95 students wanted to
take computer science last
year, but the school only
had 18 spots.
“We are in a holding pattern
right now as they are
doing research to see what
other offerings we may
offer,” said Cleary.