Options All Around – Moving seventh and eighth graders to a new high school makes some sense

Council President Jeffrey Turco threw out the idea at the last council meeting about combining the Winthrop Middle School and Winthrop High School into one building or complex and having students in grades 7-12 attend school under one roof.

Many other school districts, including Manchester/Essex and Cohasset, have built new school buildings and it’s proven to be a success. With Winthrop High School in need of major renovations and an aging Middle School building, all proposals for school construction and consolidation must be considered.

One benefit of having all the students in grades 7-12 in one building is that it would be great for the athletic program in that seventh and eighth graders would be eligible for varsity teams. We can think of at least one athlete, Winthrop High basketball great Courtney Finn, arguably the best player in school history, who could have played varsity sports as a seventh grader. She’d likely have scored 2,000 or more points in her career if she had played varsity as a seventh grader.

Let’s see if a combined Winthrop High/Junior High School plan picks up any momentum as decisions about school renovations are made.