Nearly two dozen school staff members and concerned citizens attended the Wednesday, November 16 School Committee meeting to urge the board to reinstate the social studies department at the middle school.

“The dissolution of social studies has resulted in problems for students and teachers,” Christine Mars, president of the Wareham Teachers' Association told the committee. “Students will not be prepared for high school social studies and thus will be limited in their access to future studies.”

Mars was the first of 12 speakers, including a few parents and a student, who all expressed similar sentiments during the “public participation” portion of the School Committee meeting.

School officials said in June that a strapped budget and $500,000 shortfall caused them to have to make cuts to jobs and revamp the social studies curriculum in the middle school, with students learning social studies concepts through a state-approved humanities class rather than through a social studies class. (The class is called "critical thinking world view.")

Two teachers were laid off and seven were reassigned due to the cuts. Some teachers were then asked to teach the new humanities class in addition to their regular classes.

Speakers said Wednesday that the transition has been difficult.

Fifth grade teacher Brian Fitzgerald, who taught middle school social studies until the department was dissolved, argued that Wareham students will have trouble competing with their colleagues across the globe.

“The children in Wareham aren't competing with somebody around the corner for a job. They're competing with someone around the world,” he said. “We're denying the children of Wareham the access to the past that they'll need in the future.”

Wareham Middle School 7th grade teacher Stephanie Wallace worried that the school could be at risk for losing particular grant money that requires that teachers be certified in the subjects they teach.

“Today the majority of our faculty is teaching a subject outside of their content area,” she said, adding that grant funding was delayed at the middle school last year when fewer teachers were teaching outside their “content area.”

Noting that 20 middle school staff members are currently being paid to obtain their certification in humanities while receiving training in the new curriculum, Wallace wondered if the launch of critical thinking world view is saving the money that school officials intended.

“As a Wareham taxpayer, I'm outraged that my money is going toward this ill-planned and ill-constituted program,” she said. “We just keep spending and spending and spending when this was supposed to be a measure to save money.”

Superintendent Dr. Barry Rabinovitch said he could not comment on the issue, as it had been referred to the Labor Relations board, but said in an e-mail that "the payment for the consultants teaching the [certification] course offered and payments for any testing will be paid from grant money. None form local tax dollars."

Laura Pol, a Minot Forest Elementary teacher who has two children at the middle school, expressed another concern.

“I worry also that if we can cut social studies because there are no social studies on the MCAS, what happens if the state runs out of funds and decides not to have a math MCAS?” she asked.

Parents said they can already see the difference in students' education.

“I have seen the effects of the new critical thinking [program],” said parent Jamie Pelletier, who has a child in 8th grade. She said her daughter has “always been a 'straight A' student,” but one poor grade in critical thinking world view has caused her overall grade to drop. Because the class does not meet as often as other classes, her daughter “hasn't had the ability to bring that [grade] up.”

School Committee chair Geoff Swett said he didn't want to respond to the group “off the cuff” and assured the attendees that their concerns were not falling on deaf ears.

Swett noted that after attending a recent conference, he found that the increasing costs of health care, among other things, is taking a toll on school districts across the state. Most districts, he said, have also had to make the difficult decision to cut teachers.

The impact of dissolving the social studies department was addressed at a recent meeting of the School Committee's Curriculum Review Advisory Committee.

Swett encouraged attendees to attend School Committee meetings in January, including a joint public hearing with Town Administrator Mark Andrews, the Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee, to address next year's school budget.