WHS’ new schedule explained |
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By FULLER ROYAL Monday night, parents had a chance to hear Whiteville High School Principal John Westberg explain his school’s new schedule. Westberg made his presentation to the Whiteville City Schools Board of Education and explained why WHS is joining a growing number of high schools across the country, trading block scheduling for yearlong classes. Parents and students first learned of the change last month prior to class registration for the next school year. At that time, the school planned to have six classes per day. Administrators changed the number to seven to accommodate juniors and sophomores who were worried they might be unable to take some of the classes they had planned to. Westberg said that when Superintendent Randy Shaver charged his school with converting to a yearlong schedule, he began meeting with the school improvement team. He said they brainstormed and came up with a schedule that will accommodate the needs of the students. Westberg offered the benefits of a seven-period day, including a possible 28 credits and an additional 30 days of class per instructional time. He said the end-of-course tests will be at the end of the year. The yearlong classes are recommended by the College Board for the Advanced Placement (AP) courses. AP exams are only given at the end of the school year. Students enrolled in AP courses during the first semester must wait four to five months before taking their AP exams. Westberg said that students would benefit greatly from the yearlong relationships with teachers. The new schedule requires that teachers sign in at 7:35 a.m. First period begins at 7:50 and runs until 8:45. Second period is 8:49 until 9:42. Third period runs from 9:46 until 10:39. Fourth period runs from 10:43 until 11:36. Fifth period runs from 11:40 a.m. until 1:07 p.m. and includes lunch. There will be two lunch periods instead of three next year. First lunch runs from 11:40 until 12:10. Second lunch runs from 12:37 until 1:07. Each lunch period has been lengthened by five minutes. Westberg said the cafeteria and its serving format will be altered to accommodate the additional students. Westberg said that the earlier start in the morning allows class to end by 2:59 p.m. and that student will miss less class time in seventh period due to athletic dismissals, early dismissals and extra-curricular dismissals. Jackie Williams said she was concerned with returning to the additional schedule. “I feel like we’re going to miss out on the arts, the band, even sports,” she said. “Some kids are gong to have to choose between academics and something they enjoy. They will have to choose academics. Some will choose what they enjoy. That’s a done deal. I wish we would have known ahead of time. Who made the decision to return to that without having open forums? Maybe change it now and then do it in another year.” “I basically agree with what Jackie just said about the proposed schedule change,” said Michele Gore. “I use the term ‘proposed’ hopefully because I don’t know if it’s happening for sure or if you are going to vote on it. “I was told it was passed by the board and then told the board had nothing to do with it.” Gore said she was most upset by the lack of communication concerning the new schedule. “I found out about this the day my daughter came home from registration. She said ‘The block is out and I can’t take all I want to take.’” Gore said she saw nothing in writing until last week. “It’s my understanding it’s a done deal,” she said. “I have done a lot of research on it. You can find studies supporting both ways.” She said that she might have supported the change had the reasons been presented. “Right now, my daughter’s schedule is worked out so she has four honors classes at once,” Gore said. “She can barely carry her books at once. If this is a done deal something needs to be worked out on the book bags. Gore said that her daughter, a member of the Class of 2010, had come to the high school last year with a lot of enthusiasm. Gore said her daughter took the freshman seminar as required, which she called a “total waste of time.” Gore said it’s not fair that her daughter, like others, are caught in the middle with their first two years in block classes and the last two years with yearlong classes. “Last year we were forced into the freshman academy,” said Beverly Thompson. She said the main benefit to her daughter was deciding what her path would be through high school and planning the courses she would take. “And now, that has been taken away from her,” she said, “I am concerned about how she can do all these honors classes – six or seven a day as opposed to four. She doesn’t want to be tardy.” She said a school employee asked her if she had to carry all of her books. She replied yes and that students couldn’t use the same notebook for more than one class. Each notebook is two-inches thick. Thompson said the notebooks would be okay if teachers didn’t take them up at the end of the day and keep them overnight. “I feel like last year she was pushed into this class she didn’t want to take,” Thompson said. “I want her to have that one benefit she got.” During his presentation later in the evening, Westberg addresses some of the parents’ concerns. He pointed out that some block scheduling will be done as part of a transition to ensure that students needing specific courses for college will be accommodated. Tentative blocked courses include Spanish I and II, biology and physical science, Algebra II and advanced Functions and Modeling; Geometry and Algebra II, Algebra II and pre-calculus and AP Calculus AB and BC. “For whatever reasons, some of the juniors did not plan for their math courses until their senior years,” he said, Shaver said that while the arts teachers at WHS were initially concerned about the possible loss of students in their program, they are now on board and believe it will benefit them in the long run. Shaver cited band director Chance Bryant who said that for the first time, he will have students who will commit to four units of yearlong band as opposed to tying up eight units to do the same thing under block scheduling. Bryant plans to offer honors band as a way to keep upperclassmen involved. Honors art is being considered also. Shaver said he’s surprised that, given the award-winning output of the WHS visuals arts department, that there is not an AP art class. Westberg said that the seven-period day seems to be the charm. “You are aware that we want to add more AP courses and this gives us the opportunity,” Westberg said. Shaver said yearlong classes will enable the school to add more honors and AP courses. Westberg pointed out that English students will have the entire fall semester to prepare for the state’s writing tests, which are administered in early March each year. Currently, students taking English their second semester have only a matter of weeks to prepare for the writing test. “The writing test in March is not fair to us as a school,” he said. Westberg said that for the first time in 15 years, Whiteville High School will be able to offer more assemblies during the year. With block scheduling, if a student missed a class, it was the equivalent of missing two days of class. Westberg said that the school will be able to offer more job shadowing and interaction with the community with year long classes. “Right now, we are so pressed for time we can’t do cultural activities or scholarly activities,” Westberg said. “With this extra time built in, we will have a lot more time to offer this to children.” He said a field trip request for a group is a lot easier to approve with the yearlong schedule. Shaver asked Westberg how he would handle the situation with three classes of additional books. He said that if the four minutes between classes isn’t long enough, an additional minute could be added. He said there are 800 lockers in the school, more than enough to accommodate the existing school population. Westberg said the minutes would be added to the end of the day. Merritt asked if Westberg had even walked the campus between its two most extreme classrooms. Westberg said he had, walking from the weight room on the south end of the campus to the northernmost classroom on the second floor of the main building. He said the weight room teachers as well as the teachers in the outermost buildings release their students a minute or two earlier than the bell so they can get to their classes on time. Shaver said that parents are concerned with the number of books being hauled back and forth between classes. Shaver asked Westberg about the possibility of mesh or clear book bags. Westberg said he thought mesh and clear bags would be a great idea for books and athletic gear. Students would have to leave the book bags in their lockers until the end of the day. Merritt suggested that students be allowed to use smaller notebooks with the new schedule. “I think we will have to make some adjustments in what will be required,” Westberg said. “The new schedule opens up a whole new realm of possibilities for us.” Board member Jim DiMuzio said he has had some feedback about the amount of homework. He said some parents report three to four hours per night. Shaver said homework should always be about quality, not quantity. “We want our teachers to understand that,” Shaver said. Shaver said the results of a curriculum audit last year found that WHS’s teachers “overwhelmingly” are teaching for about 50 minutes of each 90-minute class and allowing homework to be done for the other 40 minutes. He said he mentioned this not to sound critical, but “we have not used the block as it should be used.” “There is also the need to make sure that teachers understand that a youngster will be taking more than one class,” said Board Chairman Carlton Prince. Prince said that the additional 30 days of instruction in each subject is the biggest positive. He said he didn’t know how any average student could learn Algebra I in the block system. He said he wants to see students taking physical science in the earlier high school grades so they will have room and time for chemistry. Prince said the added 30 days would allow students to delve deeper into the subjects. “Maybe those advanced courses and the scores will not suffer as much,” he said. “I had a teacher tell me this year, ‘I just can’t cover all the material I need to cover.’”
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