Next year’s eighth graders may find themselves at the high school.

Superintendent Kimberley Shaver-Hood has proposed moving the eighth grade from the middle school to the high school, saying it would provide more academic opportunities for eighth graders and help equalize the numbers between the 555-student high school and 800-some-student middle school.

She and principals of both affected schools have visited other school systems that made a similar shift and are soliciting parents' questions in advance of an informational meeting to be scheduled later this month.

At present, 37 eighth graders are participating in Wareham's "dual enrollment" program, allowing them to take some high school classes in the morning and middle school classes in the afternoon. However, due to scheduling conflicts and their requirements as eighth graders, the students may only take four different classes, all of which are in the core curriculum.

“By moving our eighth graders to the high school, we could provide access to both morning and afternoon [classes],” Shaver-Hood said. “We can provide [classes] in the arts, we can provide them in other areas than what we are able to now, just because they would be able to be there.”

Another impetus for the move, Shaver-Hood said, is the size of the middle school, which she said currently houses close to 800 students. The high school, on the other hand, stands at 555 students. Because there are about 200 eighth grade students expected for next year, the move would “even out the buildings,” especially given that the high school was built for at least a couple hundred more students.

Shaver-Hood, high school Principal Scott Palladino, and Bonnie Lasorsa, a teacher acting as a representative from the middle school, have visited other districts whose eighth grade students successfully made the transition to the high school.

Minkle said the visits went well, and that they benefitted from the other districts’ experiences. He also said officials in those districts found more students were inclined to stay in school, when they weren’t moved from one building to another.

“The percentage of kids that stayed sharply increased, because they became infused in the high school’s culture,” Minkle said.

Palladino reported the principal at the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School said it was “the best decision” district officials had ever made, and that he walked the three through every issue that had arisen in the transition.

Minkle also said decreasing the number of students would increase the use of the entire building, as it would mean certain teachers wouldn’t have to stay in certain rooms for entire school days.

“We have a science teacher who has a science lab, and who has to teach multiple classes per day – he can’t go anywhere,” Minkle said. “It’s the same with home economics. If this move happens, we would be able to schedule different classes in different rooms, and open up the building to us, in terms of how we use electives.”

Palladino said he and other high school staffers have “a good barometer” on having eighth graders in the high school, as the school has hosted batches of students for the last two years, in the dual-enrollment program. He also said the “stakes aren’t as high,” when it comes to the students’ GPAs as eighth graders, which he said can be affected by the transition.

“It’s always tough to transition from one [school] to another,” Palladino said. “There is a change in structure, a change in schedule, a change in staff – all that gets thrown at them as freshmen. It takes a little time for your average freshman to acclimate to the setting.”

The only parental trepidation Minkle said he can see is having the eighth graders mingle with the high schoolers, much in the way they were concerned, he said, when the fifth graders moved to the middle school several years ago. However, school officials were able to overcome that concern by essentially having a school within a school, as the fifth graders currently occupy one wing of the school, kept separate from the rest of the students.

The same plan is not in place, however, for the eighth graders, should they move to the high school. Palladino said the administration looked at a few ideas, and decided the current system of matching eighth graders with upper classmen in teams within classes is the best option.

“With the dual enrollment students, that has really worked,” Palladino said. “We are not going to geographically segregate them.”

While Minkle, Palladino, and Shaver-Hood are in favor of the move, they would like to have an informational session in January with the public to get their points of view on the matter. The exact time and location have yet to be determined, Shaver-Hood said, but that there is an online form the public may fill out to send along questions before the meeting. The form may be found at: http://warehamps.org/potential-8th-grade-move-to-wareham-high-school/.

Whatever is decided, Palladino said he believes it is important to get the matter settled as quickly as possible, to clear up any lingering issues.

“We are far from a done deal right now,” Palladino said.