By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — Lynnfield High School is looking to add several new courses during the 2025-2026 academic year, Principal Patricia Puglisi said during the School Committee’s Jan. 14 meeting.
Puglisi said the high school will be removing the third level core courses in Algebra, Geometry, grade 9 English, grade 10 English, grade 11 American Literature, Biology and Chemistry. She said the high school currently has honors level and college prep (CP) classes, and the third level courses are for special education students.
“We truly believe in a full inclusion model,” said Puglisi.
Puglisi said the high school will be adding a new Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. Government and Politics course for the Social Studies Department.
“We feel that is a really engaging class for our students,” said Puglisi. “It is accessible for a wide variety of students.”
Puglisi said the high school is looking to offer a freshmen civics/digital literacy course next year.
“It is a ninth grade semester-long class that all ninth-graders would enroll in,” said Puglisi. “It allows for us to focus on digital literacy and academic integrity instruction at the ninth grade level. It would kind of be the base for our Freshmen Academy, which is our transition plan for ninth-graders coming into high school. It would really help them understand the academic expectations and behaviors for our school.”
Puglisi said the civics/digital literacy class is “budget dependent.”
“We do understand that it is a difficult budget year, but it is something we wanted to push onto the table as we feel it will really jettison Lynnfield High School forward,” said Puglisi.
School Committee member Jim Dillon asked Puglisi if the committee could receive a copy of the syllabus for the civics/digital literacy course.
Puglisi agreed to Dillon’s request.
Dillon expressed concerns that student stress would increase if the high school added another graduation requirement.
“If we are going to add an elective that is required for graduation, I think we have to be careful that we are not overstressing, over-demanding and over-pressuring kids who are already stressed,” said Dillon.
In response to a question from School Committee member Jamie Hayman, Puglisi said the AP U.S. Government and Politics class is not budget dependent.
Puglisi said the high school is looking to add three new technology classes. She said the Project Lead The Way: Introduction to Engineering class will include both CP and honors students. She also said the full-year Cybersecurity class will be eliminated, and it will be separated into Cybersecurity 1: Networking Fundamentals and Cybersecurity 2: Cybersecurity Fundamentals.
“Each of those will be yearlong classes,” said Puglisi. “Next year, Networking Fundamentals will go in. For the following year, students who are interested in cybersecurity can move into Cybersecurity Fundamentals.”
Puglisi said the Science Department is looking to add Sports and Exercise Science as a semester-long course. She also said the Science Department wants to switch Forensic Science from a full-year course to a semester-long class.
In addition to changing the names of several music courses, Puglisi said the Music Department is looking to add Beginning Guitar, Guitar Ensemble and Beginner Instrument Skills classes. She said the Music Department is also looking to add three non-performing classes: Music in Television and Film, American Popular Music, and Music Production.
Puglisi said the high school is looking to eliminate health from the grade 9 physical education class.
“In grade 9, we are running full PE for a semester because we feel that grade 9 students need the most activity,” said Puglisi. “We moved health into grades 10 and 11, and we combined those two grades together.”
School Committee Chair Kristen Grieco Elworthy asked how will the health class change work.
Puglisi said students will be receiving one semester of PE and one semester of health in grades 10 and 11.
The principal said LHS is pursuing a partnership with Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) that would allow students to receive dual enrollment credits. According to the Manchester, New Hampshire university’s website, “‘SNHU in the High School’ courses require only a $100 fee for a three-credit course and $25 if a lab is part of the course.”
“We are pursuing one course in each of our subject areas,” said Puglisi. “It provides an opportunity for kids to obtain dual enrollment credit for courses we are running at the high school. A student could choose either AP or the dual enrollment credits, and a lot of that will have to do with their post-secondary plans and what their college or university might accept. Our state schools in Massachusetts would certainly accept the SNHU credits, but Harvard may not.”
Puglisi said Newburyport High School, Pentucket and Triton each offer dual enrollment credit programs.
“The student does not need to take the credits if they don’t want to pay for them,” said Puglisi.
Hayman asked if the SNHU partnership is a “reflection that fewer and fewer colleges are taking AP credit.”
“I think it is a tandem of a little bit of that, but also another opportunity to obtain dual enrollment credits that are different than needing to score a 3 or above on an AP exam,” said Puglisi. “It’s a broader reach for kids.”
Dillon said SNHU is “the most aggressive marketing college in New England.” He asked if there will be any guardrails to prevent SNHU from engaging in “overly aggressively marketing.”
Puglisi tried to alleviate Dillon’s concerns about the proposed SNHU partnership.
“They are providing a year’s worth of credit for a student for $100,” said Puglisi. “If I am going to UMass and I want to opt-out of English, it is a cheap way to do that.”
School Committee Vice Chair Jenny Sheehan asked how the dual enrollment classes will be selected.
Puglisi said the high school will be selecting and submitting the classes to SNHU, which would then review them.
Phillips Road resident Deirdre Donovan, who is an associate dean at the Wentworth Institute of Technology, expressed her support for the high school’s partnership with SNHU.
“I want to applaud the move towards dual enrollment,” said Donovan. “If it turns out that SNHU is not the right vendor, I would really hope that the School Committee could support a different vendor. The change in the higher education landscape is really moving towards dual enrollment. It sort of fits the educational philosophy of not going towards high-stakes tests. Professionally sitting on the other side, I love dual enrollment credit because it is not relying on an exam for one day. It looks at a whole body of work. A student only has to get a ‘C’ in a course and if it is from a credited institution, they get college credit as opposed to an AP exam. After 180 days, you sit for an exam and if someone doesn’t like your open response, you get a 3. Most universities only take 4s and 5s today.”
The School Committee is scheduled to vote on the LHS Program of Studies during its next meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 28.