BUCKSPORT — The Bucksport School Committee has adopted a trimester student reporting system for fourth-grade pupils for the current school year.

The old system reported grades four times a school year.

The new system, which was approved as a pilot project for the year, will expand pupil report cards to include phrases and sentences as well as letter grades, according to Superintendent of Schools Marc Curtis.

The change also will allow teachers to schedule regular parent-teacher conferences between the trimester reports, a move which will allow for a better assessments of the pupils’ accomplishments.

According to Curtis, the quarterly reporting system also provides for parent-teacher conferences before the first and third reporting periods. “The teachers are reporting student progress over just a four-week period,” he said. “The trimester system extends that period so takes place six or seven weeks into the trimester,” he said. “It allows the teacher to provide more information to the student and the parent.”

Although the system will be new for fourth-grade teachers, it won’t be new for parents or pupils. The K-3 classes already have changed from a quarterly system, Curtis said.

“It’s new at the fourth grade, so parents are accustomed to a different reporting system,” he said. “This is close to what we use in K-3.”

Curtis said the board will review the system in the spring and determine whether to make the change permanent.

In other action, the board voted to hire Herbert Robinson as the interim principal at the middle school.

Robinson will replace Floyd Phinney, a former middle school principal, who has filled in as interim principal since August. Phinney will remain on the job until Nov. 23. Although the committee was pleased with Phinney’s performance, he had other commitments and could not continue beyond that date.

Robinson has served as an interim principal and superintendent, most recently in the Ellsworth school system. He also has been a full-time principal and superintendent and taught at the middle school level.

Curtis said the decision came after the committee had advertised and interviewed for the principal’s position. There was a small pool of candidates, he said. Although the committee interviewed 10 candidates, there were difficulties with people being unwilling to move at this time of the year.

“After doing the interviews, [the committee] decided [it] will continue with an interim principal for the rest of the school year,” he said.

Curtis said the committee would re-advertise the position in the spring, then hire someone who could start during the summer.