Graduation requirements altered for Tiverton High School students due to coronavirus

TIVERTON – Two high school graduation requirements – senior project and community service – are being amended for the Class of 2021 because of COVID-19, with the hope that things will return to normal for the Class of 2022 who are now high school juniors.

Graduating seniors were required to have at least 75 hours of community service to graduate. The hours students spend volunteering in the community are built up during the four years of high school. While “a fair number” of students actually exceed the 75 hours by the time of graduation, said High School Principal Christopher Ashley, others don’t.

This year they won’t have to fret.

Ashley asked the School Committee at its latest meeting to waive the community service requirement for graduating seniors so they don’t have to volunteer in the community and potentially be exposed to COVID-19, or vice versa. He also asked the number of hours for the underclassmen be reduced because no one knows how long the pandemic will last. Current juniors, for example, would need just 20 hours by the time of their graduation in June, 2022. Current sophomores would need 35 hours by the time of their graduation in June 2023, and current freshmen would need 55 hours by the time of their graduation in June 2024.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has placed significant strain on students’ ability to safely seek out and support the Tiverton community. In addition, opportunities for students to directly work with community partners on community service and senior project in a safe manner has become challenging,” Ashley said in a memorandum to the school committee.

The four members of the committee present at the meeting – Chairman Jerome Larkin, Vice Chairwoman Diane Farnworth, Sally Black and Elaine Pavao – approved the amendment. Deborah Pallasch was absent.

Farnworth asked if it was premature to include the freshmen. Ashley said the students will lose “a good chunk” of potential hours this school year. He said the required hours can be amended again in the future.

The committee also approved the amendments for Senior Project, which is a months-long project of research on a subject that involved working with a mentor and then presenting the project to a team of judges in May. Some projects in the past have included learning to build a boat, learning to play a new instrument, learning to juggle and learning to cook.

There will be no mentors this year.

“Mentoring was a very important aspect,” said teacher Lee McCarthy. “With COVID we can’t ask students or their families to commit to something like this.”

While she understood the rationale for taking the mentor out of the project requirements, Farnworth said the project appears now to be more of a research paper. A mentor gives a student skills and experience in networking, Farnworth noted.

McCarthy said the plan is to restore it next year, for the Class of 2022.

“This is a very necessary adjustment and I’m glad we’re doing it early on,” said Black.