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School closings and boundary changes aren’t the only things the district plans on implementing next year.
The Shawnee Mission School District has made the decision to align all five district high schools on the same daily schedule. The five principals agreed on the 3-2 schedule, which consists of only two block days, because it was the easiest compromise, according to Principal Karl Krawitz. The common schedule will ultimately consist of either zero, two or four block period days with the rest of the week being traditional seven-period days.
Even though the principals made their decision, nothing is official until the superintendent makes a final decision which will be announced on Nov. 8 at the earliest.
The district’s economic situation is a primary reason for the desire to change to a common schedule. Most district schools have had to eliminate staff, causing over 100 positions to be eliminated from the district last year. With a common schedule between high schools, teachers can commute between schools and still have full-time jobs within the district.
When a school has specialized or elective classes that only have one or two periods during the day, such as choir or statistics, it is less of a financial burden to have one person full-time traveling to various buildings than to hire three separate people for one hour at each school. The savings comes in benefits like health insurance, according to Dr. Krawitz.
Block scheduling has been a part of SMSD since 1995, when SM North decided to go to an A/B block, a schedule which switched off block days and didn’t have a seven-period day. SM West was next to go the schedule in 1998 when they adopted the 4-1 schedules, with four block days and one 7-period day. North liked this idea, and switched to that schedule as well. In 2008, East and SM Northwest both switched to block. East went on the 4-1 schedule and Northwest went to 3-2, with two block days and three 7-period days a week. On Oct. 4, South decided to go to block schedule, with the intention of going to 3-2.
When the five principals met, West, East and North argued why they believe the common schedule should be 4-1.
“It became almost a moot point on our feelings anywhere,” Dr. Krawitz said. “We were arguing against something that we knew was not economically possible.”
To run a block schedule, a school needs teachers for supervision and seminar. The district can’t violate the conditions of the teacher’s contract, which results in block scheduling costing more money. To be the most cost efficient, the seven-period schedule should be intact because it reduces the total number of teachers (10-15 per school), according to associate superintendent Gillian Chapman. With this schedule, teachers can teach six classes and have one plan. With block, teachers can only teach 5 classes and seminar to abide by their contract.
South and Northwest argued why they thought 4-1 wasn’t going to work. There are 42 hours of less teaching time on 3-2 block and 84 less hours on 4-1 block in comparison to the 750 hours on a seven-period schedule according to Chapman.
Dr. Krawitz believes there is no chance that any school will be on the 4-1 schedule next year. He also says he isn’t sure if the common schedule will be 3-2 or a seven period day.
“If [the district] doesn’t think it’s economically possible to do 3-2 block, they might all go back to seven period day and no one can do anything about it,” Krawitz said.
Chapman, who is in charge of secondary schools in the district, explained that even though seminar is a valuable resource, it costs a lot more money because it’s a non-graded, not-for-credit class and there has to be a teacher.
Even though there is a loss of classroom time with the 4-1 block, many believe there are great benefits to the schedule.
SM West social studies teacher Lisa Benge understands why the district wants to be on a common schedule, but doesn’t understand why 4-1 can’t be an option.
“We chose 4-1 over 3-2 because teachers wanted two block days with each class per week,” Benge said. “Teaching in block allows teachers to use a variety of strategies in order to reach many different types of learners.”
According to Benge, block schedule allows teachers use of a variety of teaching strategies and use technology that meets the needs of all learning styles.
“I can teach the same concept several different ways during block time – give notes, show a short video, check for understanding, work in small groups,” Benge said. “This reinforces learning for those that just can’t read it and understand it.”
Benge believes these benefits are reduced in a 3-2 block, with only one block day per class per week and taken away all together in the 7 period format.
The junior class Student Council class officers are attempting to get a group of students together to attend the board meeting on Nov. 8 to testify how the scheduling affects the students. They plan on having different students stand up and say their opinion of the scheduling.
“I believe the board members are overlooking what students want,” junior class president Carolyn Welter said. “I really enjoy the schedule as it is because block periods and seminar really help the students with their studies.”
Welter also explains how she couldn’t imagine her junior year without two seminars. She believes junior year is the hardest year and being a junior on 3-2 schedule would be very difficult when having to prepare for all seven classes three nights a week instead of just one.
Senior Mikaila Demetroulis has experienced both types of block schedule. As a sophomore she went to Olathe East, and the school was on 3-2. As a graduating senior, the new schedule won’t affect her, but she explained that she would feel bad if East was put on 3-2 block because the workload seems to be tremendously larger because students have each class more often.
Dr. Krawitz believes the main advantage of the 4-1 block is the extra seminar. He explains that seminar is a great way for students to get extra help if they are struggling or if students need to get caught up because they can take the time to do this in the 90-minute seminar provided.
In contrast, SM Northwest principal Bill Harrington believes that one seminar a week is enough for students and says that Northwest’s teachers and students always take advantage of their single seminar.
“We did not elect the 4-1 model because of the second seminar period in the week,” Harrington said. “While it has value, it deducts 90 minutes of that week from actual class time and instruction. We felt that was too much to pay in exchange for one more seminar.”
Harrington also explained that the advantage of seminar is the flexibility it provides to the school to be used however they decide. In order to get that flexibility though, 90 minutes is deducted from class time. The trade off-class time for flexibility-is where each building must consider where its priorities are.
Benge also explains that by switching over to 3-2 block, the teaching strategy will be different. To teach effectively in a 90-minute block, a teacher should change activities at least three times. She explained that this requires a lot of planning and preparation.
“With only one block day to prepare for, teachers who are not accustomed to teaching daily in the block may end up using the extended period one day each week to allow students to do homework instead of continuing instruction,” Benge said.
Benge doesn’t know for sure if a new schedule will result in wasted class time, but she does insist that planning for one block day per week will be more difficult.
Dr. Krawitz says that the common schedule decision will need to be made by the end of the semester because enrollment begins at the beginning of second semester. The district will need to know the schedule to know how many teachers it needs to hire, which is an important factor in the enrollment process.
“It doesn’t seem like having one or two seminars per week make much of a difference,” Chapman said. “But in the scheme of things that’s 42 or 84 hours of the school year that we don’t have. It’s a very critical situation.”
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