SAUGUS — Saugus High School is offering struggling students a second chance.
Rather than wait until a student receives a failing grade for the year, the administration wants to give kids who received an F for the term in any of their classes the opportunity to bring their percentage up before it’s too late.
The school’s principal, Michael Hashem, said the credit-recovery program is meant to be an intervention — a proactive way for students to move along in their classes without waiting for an inevitable summer school sentence.
“We worry about kids who get fairly low Fs and dig themselves into a mathematical impossibility of passing early on,” he said. “So this is a method to one: keep them competitive in a classroom environment, and two: remediate the skills they didn’t pick up along the way.”
After debuting the program last year, the school decided it had seen enough improvement from students to warrant bringing it back for year two.
The current session began Dec. 7.
Students have the opportunity to sign up for the four-session program, held on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon, at the end of the first, second, and third term. They retake the course they failed online, under the supervision of teachers for that subject.
“I taught math for 20 years,” Hashem said. “If you have a kid that bombs the first term, they get into a position where they can’t (possibly) get a (passing grade) for the year.”
The highest percentage grade students can achieve by the end of the program is a 65 percent, which he says is enough to get them back on track for the rest of the year.
He emphasized that the course is not required, and said students sign up at their own will.
Assistant Principal Kimberly Politano, who oversees the program, added: “It’s an opportunity for them, it’s not mandatory.”
As of last week, Politano said around 40 students were enrolled to take the course this term.
