Well-Off Without Wellness?

Liam Russo and Grace Elletson, Staff Writers

It seems that for high-achieving students there have always been ways to get around taking a wellness credit. Students have come to take full advantage of online wellness courses through the American School to gain the mandatory credit. However, this facet of online education is being phased out of BHS; but, so is the wellness credit itself.

On Monday December 8, the BPS School Committee announced that the wellness graduation requirement is no longer necessary. This decision was made among others to comply with the masscore standards (see “Masscore headline,” pg 1 and 12). However, this new change does not affect the class of 2015, who is already half-way through their senior courses. But that isn’t to say everyone in the senior class was required to fit the mandatory wellness credit into their schedule anyway.

Certain students were grandfathered,or given permission  based on prior conditions, not to take the course. The students opted to take Consumer Economics, an online American School course that could be completed for a college prep credit, if approved by their guidance counselor as well as Maria Pierozzi, Wellness Department Head.

However, not just any student was given permission to take the American School course. Only students who had the American School in their eighth grade four-year plan  or had taken an art or music course for all of their high school years were grandfathered out of the credit or able to take it online in order to fit it into their schedule. And, not to mention, the American School course isn’t free: it’s 250 dollars.

“I think the course is elitist,” said Pierozzi. “An online course is not the best way to learn a subject, especially health,” she added.

Since the class can be completed on a students’ own time, senior Ben Ahajjam said that he was able to complete the course within a week–in August. Ahajjam said that he didn’t even have the the wellness course added into his four-year plan, nor was he a band or art student.

Because Ahajjam is taking five AP courses in his six course schedule this year, he took the course online because colleges like to see a rigorous schedule and he wanted to make sure he had room for the AP classes he wanted.

Despite the course being offered at a college preparatory level, the American School waits until around May to finally process the course and final grade. That means any senior who was enrolled in the American School would not have the college preparatory level course added into their schedule until after GPA and class rank had been calculated. This especially impacts the top ten students, some of whom who are taking the online course. Ultimately, the restrictions regarding the American School were enough for the guidance department to officially drop the program.

“We’re not in control of that class, and we’re not in control of that curriculum,” Jennifer Clark, School Counseling Department Head at BHS said, “We kind of give it up to the student to be responsible and get it all done.”

Despite the efforts some students took to get around taking a wellness course, there’s still an entire department left at BHS that has lost it’s mandatory value in the context of a student’s schedule. The Wellness department could possibly face major changes to their staff and budget. “It was a major disappointment,” said Pierozzi, “but I’m optimistic the department will thrive. There were nearly 100 kids wanted to take a four-day-a-week gym class simply because they enjoy it.”

Although a course in Wellnessmay or may not boost a high school GPA, “the benefits go beyond the BHS curriculum,” said Pierozzi who plans to introduce a new set of 11th and 12th grade courses on stress, college applications, nutrition and finance needs to prepare students for college.