At a School Committee meeting earlier this month, the group discussed student-body and enrollment numbers. The statistic that stood out among the rest was a large increase in expected students at Veterans Middle School.
“Our overall enrollment has increased by 54 students, which includes 30 new students to the district,” acting Superintendent of Schools Michelle Cresta said at the meeting. The total student body has grown to 449, as opposed to 395 at the end of this past school year.
Veterans Middle School Principal Matthew Fox approached the board to discuss the potential impacts this increase could have on the school’s operations. Fox explained that this increase is the third-highest he has experienced in his tenure as principal.
“Class sizes are going to be large,” Fox said. “We have one period that is going to give us challenges especially. Our world language classes are going to be maxed at 25.”
He added that every student who opted to take a foreign-language class should be able to, however they may not be able to take their primary choice of language.
The seventh grade has seen the most dramatic change, with 238 students. Fox explained that the school was anticipating 221.
“Every student that’s unanticipated is new,” he said. “Since COVID, predicting class size has been challenging… If you look at the numbers over the last 15 years, there’s nothing predictable.”
Fox asserted the majority of these new students are coming from the Marblehead Community Charter Public School.
“I think some families saw it as a grade four through six switch and then they have the idea of coming back to us before high school,” he said.
The board, along with Fox, suggested that entry and exit interviews for the families of students could assist in tracking and anticipating enrollment-number changes.
School Committee Chair Sarah Fox explained what the committee has done in past years to help schools mitigate the negative consequences of an overabundance of students.
“In the past when he’s needed to increase due to a large influx from charter he’s come to us and said he needs to add staff,” Sarah Fox said. “At that point it’s a recommendation that comes from the superintendent and we vote to approve those positions right away.”
Sarah Fox emphasized that this year’s student influx has not called for any type of staffing expansion to this point.