Coakley middle school plan: fifth grade platooning, trimester schedule and staffing needs outlined
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Summary
Administration outlined enrollment projections and a revised middle‑school schedule for the new Coakley 5–8 school, including platooned fifth‑grade teams, trimesters, and added world language and STEM seats tied to requested FY26 staff.
District administrators presented enrollment analyses and a proposed schedule for the new Coakley Middle School and its incoming fifth graders, describing how staffing requests in the FY26 preliminary budget enable the planned program.
Doctor Pratjek (presenting the middle‑school analysis) said fifth‑grade classes will "travel together as a little pack" (a platoon model) with cohorts keeping the same homeroom and special classes together; she said the design envisions five‑grade class sizes of about 24 and common planning time for teachers. The administration recommended a trimester calendar to allow students to experience specials (art, music, library) and to permit longer assessment windows than semester or quarter models.
Principal/High School administrator Dr. Galligan reviewed high school master‑schedule constraints and class‑size averages. He said most core high‑school courses average between 17 and 23 students and noted that small electives with one to three sections can show large year‑to‑year swings. He cautioned that "simply modifying 1 section doesn't establish any significant savings and actually results in a domino effect on all the other offerings that we have." (Dr. Galligan)
Why it matters: The district is opening Coakley in August 2025 and shifting fifth graders into the building as part of a 5–8 model. Administration told the committee that the proposed staffing additions in the FY26 budget—an extra world language teacher, additional music and art capacity and wellness staffing—are integral to delivering the plan; without those hires, the program would require pulling staff from elementary schools or increasing class sizes.
Administrators also said classroom capacities in the new building are designed around 24 seats per classroom, which informed both the staffing and the choice to platoon in fifth grade. For grades 6–8 the schedule change is mainly the shift to trimesters and a rebalancing of STEM and computers into half‑trimester modules to reduce overfull labs.
Ending: Committee members asked administration to continue refining the master schedule and to track the budget decisions that could affect planned hires. Administrators said they will return with final staffing lists and class‑section allocations as enrollments firm up in late spring.