By Katie Potenzone
Starting with the class of 2014, students will have, what appears to be, more stringent graduation requirements. Students will be required to take one extra year of math and science, along with two years total of foreign language. HHS principal, Alyson Geary, explained that these new requirements will, “raise the bar for all kids.”Ms. Geary stated that, “Hopkinton High School would like to increase our course requirements for graduation so that our requirements reflect the rigorous academic program that our students take in their four years at HHS.” Cheryl Elder, a HHS guidance counselor agreed with Ms. Geary, saying that the new graduation requirements are, “Really to document what we already have in place and to formalize it.”

Elder went on to say that these new requirements will, “be more clear to colleges.” When applying to college with these new requirements, students from HHS will appear to have a stronger educational background. Colleges will see that, “Students are coming from a high school with high expectations,” Ms. Elder continued to say.

Ms. Geary explained that the wellness requirement is state mandated. The state requires a wellness course each year of high school. Ms. Geary also said that the school tried to make the wellness curriculum, “more interesting by having a variety of electives to take.” The wellness requirement has already taken effect immediately, and is going to effect the class of 2011.

In a letter sent out to parents and teachers, Ms. Geary stated, “In determining these new requirements, we collected data to see how many of our students are currently taking the proposed number of required core courses. The data clearly indicates that the majority of our students are already complying with these new requirements.” The percentage of students already taking the curriculum for the proposed graduation requirements is in the high nineties, for all of the subjects involved in the proposed increase in courses required for graduation.