Cody Middle School Adjusting Schedule to Address Shortages

Cody Middle School will be making some major changes to their schedule.

Because of necessary budget cuts, some teachers who have resigned or chosen to take early retirement will not be replaced at Cody Middle School. At last night’s school board meeting, CMS Assistant Principal Patrick Couture pointed out that the staff will be short several 6^th grade teachers, so 8^th grade teachers will be filling in gaps in the schedule.

Currently, teachers and students are separated into two teams for each grade. Students in team A are taught by a set of teachers for math, science, social studies and English; and students in team B are taught by a different set of teachers. Couture says because of the necessary reduction in staff, they need the flexibility to be able to move teachers around between grade levels, so teams won’t work after this year.

Principal Kelly Merager pointed out that until this point, CMS has really been three different schools under one roof, and this is an opportunity to change that, taking advantage of the positive interactions that can take place between grade levels.

Couture added that estimated class sizes next year will average 25-26 in the 6^th grade and 8^th grade, and 22-23 in the 7^th grade, according to the numbers that they have available.