BOXFORD — Some of the biggest news in Masconomet's schools is, well, about size.
Superintendent Claire Sheff Kohn said this year's seventh-grade class may be the biggest the system has ever seen — even though, with 385 students scheduled, it was lower than earlier predictions. That growing body of students and a tight budget may make some classes larger, she said.
"They're a little higher than they have been the last couple of years but they're not a concern at all," she said.
Those class sizes are still being evaluated as counselors work with students' schedules. The initial higher projections said middle school class sizes would rise from an average of 22.5 students to 27.1 students.
The seventh-graders and the freshmen will arrive for orientation tomorrow. Other students start school Thursday.
Sheff Kohn said the schools both have revised curriculums. At the middle school, seventh-graders won't be able to take German, which is being phased out because of low enrollment. Technology education has been integrated with regular science classes. General music classes were cut, but all students will have access to music and fine arts courses, Sheff Kohn said.
High school courses are trying to blend more disciplines. One new class, "Prometheus Unleashed," will have a science teacher discussing, for example, the discoveries of Albert Einstein or Marie Curie. Similarly, the business and computer education department will teach the nuts-and-bolts of Web design, but the art department will show how to make Web pages prettier and more functional.
"We're trying to help kids think more deeply and contextually about things," Sheff Kohn said.
During the year, a Chinese principal will visit and see the school's second year of Mandarin classes, while Principal Pam Culver will travel to China in the spring. Sheff Kohn said she hopes a student exchange program can be set up with China.
"We are really ramping up in terms of our global education," she said. "We want our kids to survive and compete well in our global economy."
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