Separate faculty meetings Aug. 26 for the middle and high schools were part of the start of giving Wiscasset Middle High School's sixth, seventh and eighth grades an identity separate from the high school, WMHS Principal Christopher Hennessey told the school committee that night in WMHS' library. He was speaking of efforts toward making those grades "a true middle school." 

"We're going to be very thoughtful about it this year ... They're craving that ... They don't want to be the afterthought," Hennessey said about the middle school faculty and its meeting that afternoon.

Updating the committee in a workshop, the longtime school administrator and first-year WMHS principal said the separate faculty meetings stemmed from his hearing the middle school rarely has faculty meetings and, "when they'd come to meetings at all, there was a real high school focus." He said the vibe in the Aug. 26 faculty meetings was great, with each meeting looking at different, age-appropriate approaches to the cell phone ban and other procedures.

"Yeah. I think the middle school team just wants to be heard and feel respected as equal voices in this community, and so far, so good."

The student handbook has been "very high school-centric," he said. Work to break it into separate, emotionally and academically appropriate ones for the two groups continues, he said.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kim Andersson added, the middle school student council will probably "get off the ground" this school year, with this administrative support she said will give middle schoolers a voice in their school. That's important at their age, she said.

Andersson noted she coined the term "Two schools under one roof" in response to last May's incident in the gym. (D'Antae Dawkins, then a senior, was charged with aggravated assault against an eighth grader.) Andersson continued, "There were a lot of mistakes that were made that day, but primarily what we had here was ... sort of a casual culture where kids moved around in the building. And they weren't always where they were supposed to be and they weren't held accountable to that. And that's over. That is over," she repeated.

"Has to be," Vice Chair John Merry nodded. "Has to be."

Member Doug Merrill expects some "rumbling (and) noise" at first. "But kids are pretty adaptive ... once they know where the boundaries are."

"Very much so," Hennessey said.

"Boundaries are the big thing," Chair Tracey Whitney said.

Hennessey described a "rolling cart/office" that will be around WMHS' hallways, sometimes with him, sometimes with Athletic Director and Assistant Principal Brandon Rogers.

It will take every single adult in the school to make sure the pass system and other things including the phone ban are followed, Hennessey said. "I think, guys, that people are craving this here, I really do."

The discussion also touched on school pride. That helps attendance, Merrill said. Hennessey said one school he worked at did a "Friday Show," an assembly version of "The Tonight Show," with kids hosting, and kids' achievements and talents celebrated. Something like it is in the concept stage at WMHS, he said.

Elsewhere in the workshop, the committee mulled how it will, three times a year, review academic achievement. Attendance, graduation rates, test scores and participation in extracurriculars were eyed as possible ways.