MATTAPOISETT — The Old Rochester Regional District School Committee has approved a new program of studies for the high school that will add an additional Portuguese course and change the options for grade 12 English. 

Old Rochester Regional High School is currently in its first year of offering Portuguese, and has 25 students in the class. High School Principal Michael Devoll said at a meeting of the  The Old Rochester Regional District School Committee Jan. 26 that the school’s foreign language options usually run for a minimum of two semesters. 

School Committee member Heather Burke asked if there were plans for a third and fourth Portuguese class as well. Devoll responded that there were, and that a faculty member was pursuing additional certifications to be able to teach those courses. 

The change to the Grade 12 English course, would make the offering more thematic, and pupils will get to choose between studying multicultural literature, creative English, media literacy, or a themed course. Regardless of which theme the seniors pick, the focus is on learning 21st century communication skills, Devoll said. 

Other changes to the program of studies included updates to some course descriptions to more accurately reflect the content of the course. 

Devoll said that the prerequisites for three AP courses have been changed because it has been challenging for teachers to assess where pupil skill levels are at with all of the recent pandemic disruptions to education.

The name of the AP art course will also be changed to AP Art and Design, to match what the College Board calls the course. 

Burke also asked how the appeals process works, if a teacher recommends that a pupil take a lower level course and a student wants to take a more advanced course. 

Devoll explained that the school’s course system would first check with the pupil to be sure that they opted for the more advanced class and it was not selected in error. If the student confirms the choice, the system would schedule an override meeting in March with Devoll, the student, the student’s parents, teacher and guidance counselor. 

The principal prefers an open-enrollment philosophy, and says that he really enjoys the override meetings because teachers always bring student work samples, and it usually leads to a good discussion for everyone there. After the meeting, sometimes the pupil opts for a lower course, and sometimes they focus on strengthening missing skills that came up in the meeting and elect to take the more advanced course. 

Devoll agreed with Burke’s suggestion that more students and families need to know about this override process.