Welcome Back

The Falmouth Public Schools open their doors Tuesday morning for the start of the school year. All students will see new faces among the teachers. The students of Lawrence Junior High School will see guidence counselors in the classroom and experience a new dress code.

"We're looking forward to a very positive school opening," superintendent Marc Dupuis said Wednesday. "We had staff come in today and had a very good initial colloquy".

Unlike some other Massachusetts towns, Falmouth will open its school buildings unscathed from Hurricane Irene.

"We were very lucky with that," Dupuis said. "We're ready to go. We could open today if needed. The buildings are in great condition. The janitorial staff has done an excellent job getting them ready."

Any school superintendent spends a large part of the summer tracking the teacher hiring process. Dupuis oversaw 30 new hires this summer. An unusually high number of them, a half-dozen, Falmouth High School graduates.

"It's very good that people who attended and graduated from Falmouth schools want to come back and be a part of the community," Dupuis said. "I think it's great. I'm very happy with all the teachers we hired at all grade levels."

Lawrence Junior High School made the most news coming into the new school year. It qualified as an innovation school under the state's education reform guidelines.

"It gives a lot of authority to the staff and administration," Dupuis said.

In the first taking of authority Dupuis listed, staff and administration fo the Lawrence School changed the class scheduling process to lower class sizes.

They've also made changes to the curriculum to give guidence counselors a new classroom role. Students can still make appointments for one-on-one interaction.

"Guidence counselors will be in the classrooms as part of their work day," Dupuis said. "It gives more opportunity for contact with students."

In a decision that made more news than any other, they instituted a dress code.

"The school staff and the school committee are really excited about this," Dupuis said.