Changing the plan once again, the School Department told parents last week that no eighth graders will be moved to Wareham High School next year.

What would appear to be the final decision came just days after Superintendent Dr. Kimberly Shaver-Hood told the School Committee that 80 high school slots would be opened to eighth graders who applied for special programs -- and three months after she proposed that the entire eighth grade be moved to the high school.

The "special programs" option was in reaction to sharp objections from parents and students to the move-the-whole-class plan. Although school officials would not comment in depth about the latest reveral, it appears that even the special programs option ran into opposition from some parents and School Committee members.

After much deliberation, School Committee Secretary Rhonda Veugen said, Superintendent Kimberly Shaver-Hood decided to “keep the status quo.” and not move any eighth graders to the high school, either en masse, or in selected programs. She said parents and teachers were notified of the stay via email a week ago.

Shaver-Hood said she had "listened and examined the information," and made her decision based on information she said she did not have at the time.

"Making a decision for next year would be premature," Shaver-Hood said.

Shaver-Hood first proposed moving all the eighth graders to the high school in December 2015. However, amidst a group of parents, students, and teachers both positively and negatively divided on the issue, the move was scaled back to both the current dual enrollment program and a special advanced arts program, under the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math (STEAM) umbrella program employed at the middle school. The latter program focuses on taking the students’ core curriculum outside the confines of the classroom.

“The administrative team is doing what I am calling a courageous pause,” Veugen said. “We need to be able to provide our students with the social, emotional, and academic support they need.”

Though the dual enrollment program between the middle school and high school, in which eighth graders may take higher-level core curriculum classes at the high school, will continue, the arts program will not be implemented, Veugen said. She said the administration wants to ensure that any move made will be the best for the students, and that it wants to do some more research, rather than making the move this coming Fall.

Veugen said she is “100 percent in favor” of providing wider and more rigorous opportunities for the eighth grade students, but only if there are proper support systems in place – and that, she said, requires more research on any plans to move the students.

“At the end of the day, they haven’t been completely vetted,” Veugen said. “What I am looking forward to is recommendations from our superintendent.”

Middle school Principal Dan Minkle echoed Shaver-Hood's and Veugen's sentiments, saying that this does not mean a move of some sort will not take place in the future.

Though he initially viewed it through a lens of "sheer numbers," and how many students each building could best accommodate, Minkle said he soon realized he couldn't just "reduce it down to hard numbers." He believes a delay will be best for everyone involved.

"We always listen to the parents, in terms of what would be best for their kids," Minkle said. "We also want to make sure we address kids on the entire spectrum."

High school Principal Scott Palladino declined to comment on the matter.