Block scheduling at risk

In Shawnee Mission School District’s push for common scheduling, Shawnee Mission South took a vote two weeks ago to decide to move to block scheduling. The vote passed, and next year South, like the other schools in the district, will move to block schedule. Had they not moved to block, in order to create a common schedule, every high school would have been changed back to 7-period days.

This sounds good and well: South is moving to block scheduling, therefore the other schools don’t have to move back to the traditional method. The problem, however, occurs with the way the block is handled. The principals of the high schools met to discuss the common scheduling issue and decided on a compromise: a 3-2 split. This schedule has two block days on Tuesday and Thursday, and the rest of the week is full schedule.

Four years ago, the East staff voted with a fifty-one percent majority** to move to 4-1 block scheduling, with 4 block days and only 1 traditional day. Next year, because South voted on 3-2, the other high schools will all change to match. While the district has not officially announced the change to a common schedule, the teachers have all been informed that that will be the case next year.

Teachers have to vote to move to block. The District cannot force any school to change to block; the change must come from a majority vote from the teachers. However, the superintendent determines the schedule, and must approve any changes.

South held off on block scheduling because, according Ron Millard, the math department chair at South, they didn’t want to lose the two weeks worth of contact time with their students.

“Learning is a function of quality and quantity of time spent in a learning environment,” Millard said. “The seven period day has provided that for our students.”

Block scheduling, according to Associate Superintendent Dr. Gillian Chapman, is more expensive. Seminar eats up 180 minutes a week and offers no credit to students. A staff member must be staffed, which eats up valuable instruction time. While seminar is a valuable resource for students, it is a needless fiscal expense. A 3-2 schedule will not completely eliminate the cost, but will help lower it.

Common scheduling will help remedy scheduling conflicts with students enrolled at Briarwood and students interested in the specialty programs at different school who don’t want to transfer.

But the 4-1 block scheduling is the superior schedule. There is more time for discussion, teachers have more planning time, students have less homework stress and it allows more in-depth study of the class subject matter. No matter what, people will be bothered by the schedule changes, but it would be better for all the staff and students at every school to use a 4-1 schedule. A few years ago, most of the students at East were against block scheduling until a month after it started. Now, the 3-2 compromise is causing a similar uproar. While students will get used to the schedule after a while, the change isn’t worth it. Staff and students have adjusted, and adjusted well. Most teachers, from the English to the World Language departments, support the 4-1 block, and even prefer 3-2 to traditional schedule because, as English teacher Laura Beachy put it, “Some block is better than no block.”

In the past five years at East, there has been a new principal, construction and the change from 7-period days to the 4-1-block schedule. With the proposed boundary changes (discussed in issue 3 of the Harbinger), there will be even more changes to come. Staff and students have enough on their plates to deal with yet another change.

This schedule change will affect more students in a more profound way than the boundary changes currently causing uproar. This is a district-wide change for every high school. This year’s seniors didn’t go 4 years with the same schedule, and the juniors are now cursed to the same fate. There’s no consistency from the district, and the 3-2 idea is not a functioning compromise. While some teachers consider some block better than no block, the day-to-day switch will be hard to adjust to.

These schedule changes aren’t fair to students or teachers, who are the oft-ignored victims of district decisions. Since the district has yet to announce an official change, there is still time for parents and students to be heard.

**Update: This percentage is incorrect. It was closer to a sixty-seven or seventy percent, according to East teacher Vicki Arndt-Helgesen.