Mira Costa High Rejects Move to Trimester System

Mira Costa High School will continue to operate on a semester schedule instead of switching to a trimester system when school begins next fall.

A panel of 18 parents, students and teachers spent a year studying whether a change to a trimester system would allow students to take more electives and allow students to achieve at a higher level.

But Mira Costa Principal Lynn McCormack said the panel has concluded that more research needs to done before such a change is made.

“We want to continue to look at the trimester schedule, but there’s not enough time to get that schedule implemented,” McCormack said. “There are too many questions we still need answered and too much to look at when it comes to the impact that a trimester system has on programs like music, foreign language and sports.”

McCormack said the driving force behind switching schedules was to give students an opportunity to take more classes if they want. She said under a semester system students take 60 credits per year, but under a trimester system they could take up to 75.