County schools may abandon new schedules

Hit with an influx of complaints about new high school class schedules, many top Albemarle County school leaders have lost confidence in a structure they once hailed, leaving some considering a massive scale-back of semester courses next school year.

“I think we need to be professional enough about it to say we made a mistake. And now, how do we go about fixing it?” School Board Vice Chairman Eric Strucko said.

“I truly believe right now that we need to make some adjustments to our scheduling decision, to ensure that the classes are offered in a manner that is not detrimental to the educational experience with the student,” Strucko said. “I am convinced that our core subjects need to be offered in an alternating day, full-year format. I think that has to be in every high school.”

Faced with a budget crisis, School Board members decided in February to have students take up to eight classes per school year, an increase from seven. The change was approved suddenly — with little input from parents, teachers or students — and advertised as a way to save more than $800,000 per year, by reducing the number of teachers and having those who remained instruct six courses per year, instead of five.

At the time the eight-period schedule was approved, School Board members said they believed the new system would prove better for students, in part by giving them an opportunity to take more courses per year but fewer at a given time.

Less than three months into the school year, many parents and teachers contend that semester courses force students to cram information into their short-term memories, with little time to analyze and absorb it. Additionally, students could run the risk of having long gaps in instructions of a given subject, such as advanced math.

Meanwhile, teachers have said that they’re overworked and don’t have adequate time to instruct students.

Matt Haas, the school division’s director of secondary education, said he expects a shift back toward yearlong courses next school year.

“I think what I’m hearing from the staff and the schools and the community is … start with the default as your yearlong [courses], and then add in semester courses as they’re needed, as opposed to the other way around,” Haas said. “I think that will be better received, and I also think it will work out better.”

School administrators had initially envisioned most courses to be taught on a semester basis, with the exception of advanced placement courses and certain electives.

School division administrators initially envisioned a four-by-four block schedule in which the school year would be split into two semesters, with students traditionally taking four classes in the first semester and four completely different classes in the second.

Though individual high schools were given some flexibility, division administrators envisioned semester-long courses generally as the default and yearlong courses as exemptions.

“We said, ‘If you’re going to run yearlong classes, then you need to explain why,’” Haas said.

The division’s central office later re-branded the schedule as a hybrid eight-period schedule with a combination of semester-long and yearlong courses.

Citizens of Albemarle Supporting Education, a group that released a lengthy report suggesting possible flaws in high school-level semester courses, has called for a reduction in the number of semester courses taught in Albemarle high schools.

Coupled with public outcry and a survey showing discontent from Albemarle parents, teachers and students, the group has swayed some of the school division’s top leaders.

“It all started, for me, with that group,” Strucko said, explaining that he had met with 14 of its members. During that meeting, Strucko explained why he voted for new class structure, including that many colleges offer classes on a semester-long basis, that students are given a chance to take more courses and that the change would save money.

“They politely listened and they immediately refuted each one of my points, and they did it in a way that made sense to me,” Strucko said.

While School Board members generally agree that changes need to be made to the high schools’ schedules, they don’t all agree on what role the School Board should play in determining what individual schools’ schedules should look like.

What next?

School Board member Pamela Moynihan said that the board should create specific guidelines for the class schedules, beyond simply including eight class periods per year. Moynihan said she believes yearlong courses that meet on alternating days for a year should be the usual offering, with some variation, such as semester courses, offered as schools see fit and students demand.

Board Chairman Ronnie Price Sr., however, said while he believes tweaking of the schedules might be necessary, the School Board should largely leave it up to the schools to do as they see fit, as long as they have an eight-period schedule.

“My hope is that staff will develop some solutions to the problem,” Price said, adding that the community has already made clear to administrators that changes are needed, and the School Board does not need to provide much additional direction to administrators.

Strucko said he believes the next step the School Board should take is to have a board work session in which teachers are invited to provide feedback on the schedules and suggest changes. Strucko said he’d soon propose the special session to other School Board members.

Mixed feelings

Though some school leaders have shown interest in reducing the number of semester-long courses next school year, School Board members are far from having reached a conclusion about whether the schedules should revert back to seven class periods.

“The jury’s still a little bit out,” Price said of whether to revert back to a seven-period schedule, adding that he leans toward the eight-period system. “I just hate to do something without giving it time to really, either work and be successful on its own or not.”

Price said he envisions any changes to the schedules should probably be more along the lines of tweaks than scraps.

“There were a lot of people there against the schedule, but the people who weren’t there, I’m assuming they’re okay with the schedule.

“CASE gets mad when I say, this,” Price said. “Are they the majority of my school division? Is that the majority speaking or is that just a very vocal group of citizens who felt very passionate about this topic?”

“It scares me to death that we would do something based on that particular — and they, again, get angry at me when I called it a faction — but what if we did do something, am I going to have the other two-thirds of the parents raising hell because we listened to this one group? That could be a problem.”

“I’m not convinced the School Board made a bad decision,” Price said.

A longtime Albemarle High School teacher said that she and other teachers are overwhelmed this school year, with less time to teach course material, more students in classes and a requirement to teach six classes per year, instead of five.

“We’re scratching and clawing, just to keep our heads above water,” said the teacher, who agreed to an interview under the condition of anonymity.

Only 36 percent of the 198 teachers who responded to a survey administered by the school division agreed that “the school schedule will continue to meet my students’ learning needs.”

Parents also indicated discontent in the survey.

However, Price contends that it might be too early in the process to gauge the community’s perceptions accurately.

When the idea was first floated in February, school administrators had planned to propose to the School Board a scheduling change that could be discussed by the community and potentially introduced in the 2011-12 school year. But School Board members opted to move the timeline forward, to help solve its financial dilemma.

Strucko says the School Board has received more detailed information about studies related to semester courses from CASE than what was provided by school administrators.

“You could just look at how things have played out and say, ‘Well that was something that, if we had studied it longer, we may have arrived where we are now,” Haas said.