Block Scheduling Proposed at Mineola Elementary Schools

Mineola school superintendent Dr. Michael Nagler has designed his idea of the perfect school schedule, one that won’t pull students out of important classes.

Unveiling a plan last Thursday night at the during the board of education’s regular meeting, Nagler proposed the use of block scheduling for students in pre K through 2 buildings – Willis Avenue, , , and .

Nagler explained that the revamped schedule would help eliminate two major problems he currently sees: students being pulled out of major classes for “specials” like speech and occupational therapy and mandated physical education time.

If the schedule change is approved it would break classes into three different sections: morning, middle and afternoon. The morning block would be 140 minutes long, consisting of three, 45 minute periods of literacy and English classes. The middle block would be made up of four shorter, 30 minute periods, for a total block time of 120 minutes. The afternoon block would mirror the morning segment with three, 45 minute periods for science, math and social studies classes.

The main objective of this schedule would be to avoid students missing important core classes when they are pulled out for special instruction.

During the morning and afternoon blocks, no students would be allowed to be taken out of class. Students could only be taken out for specials during the shorter periods in the middle block.

Students who are pulled out for specials under the proposed block schedule would miss art, physical education or music instead of math, science or English. Students would still be pulled out on a rotating basis, so they would not repeatedly miss any of these classes.

“I’m not saying we should eliminate music or we should eliminate art,” Nagler said, “but maybe we should look at doing it differently.”

Former Music Parents president and mother of a senior at Phyllis Badinger expressed concern that the arts classes would be cut if the block scheduling was adopted.

“If you ask me whether I want my kid to be able to read or play an instrument, obviously I want him to read, but that’s not a fair choice,” she said.

Debbie Beatty, a parent of three students in the school district, said while she sees the importance of the major classes, she doesn’t want the arts to be compromised.

“I’d rather have a happy, healthy kid than one that’s at the top of his class,” Beatty said.

The block schedule would also satisfy physical education mandates, which the school district is reportedly not currently meeting. New York requires that children receive a minimum of 120 minutes of total supervised physical education each week in daily doses, averaging out to about 24 minutes a day of required physical education classes.

Under the current school schedule, Mineola students have gym every two days, and teachers try to meet the requirements by using “ME-time,” or Movement Education. During this time students stay in the classroom and participate in an interactive videos, jumping jacks, etc.

“We’re meeting the mandate,” Nagler said, “but we’re not meeting the intent of the mandate.”

In addition to last week’s presentation to the board, Dr. Nagler had previously presented the new schedule, described as a work-in-progress, to school district staff at a town hall meeting.

Dr. Nagler is set to hold additional meetings along with assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Patricia Burns in each of the buildings in the district to get input and improve the proposed schedule.

The plan is not reliant on the .