Pelham School Officials Propose Changes to High School Schedule

Twenty minutes may not seem like much in the course of 24-hour day.

But a group of Pelham high school parents believe that it may devastating effect on the quality of education their students receive during the course of the next school year.

Pelham school officials are considering a move to change from the block scheduling the school high school currently uses to a nine period day. The block scheduling currently used by the school district consists of an eight period day that allows students to take 10 classes classes that range from 40 to 60 minutes in length. The proposed nine period schedule would keep classes at a little more than 40 minutes each.

The move, which is one of number of things school officials are considering as they try to craft next year’s budget, would save the district at least $200,000, according to Dennis Lauro, the superintendent of Pelham schools.

Lauro said that there are other potential savings could be made with the move, but he wasn’t able to give a firm numbers during Monday’s school board meeting. The schedule change will be included in the budget proposal that Lauro presents to the public on Feb. 27.

“The [2 percent property tax cap] forces us to look at everything, every single thing we do and we’re going to find some things we can do better as a result of re-examining,” said Robert Eicher, president of the school board. “And this is a result of one of those areas we can do better.”

District officials said some of the positive to changing to a nine period day are that it would make the high school and middle school schedules more similar, equalize class sizes, allow the district to make more efficient use of its staff, and make it easier to schedule and find space for classes .

Changing to a nine period day would also allow give teachers the ability to meet with their students everyday. With the current block scheduling, students who are enrolled in 60 minute classes only attended those courses every other day.

But some parents worry that the new schedule will constrict ambitious students who want to take a varied, rigorous course load that is filled with electives. They also worry that the proposal will force students to choose a subject track when their in eighth grade or freshman, which is a time when many students are unsure what their interests are.

“I thought that high school should be a time of experimentation and open horizons,” said Julie Roche, a district parent who attended Monday’s school board meeting.

Chris Wessman, a Pelham resident, read a letter from his son, Steven Wessman, who attended the high school last year and is now attending Harvard. In the letter, Steven Wessman said he worried that the proposal would limit students who wanted to take as many courses as possible in order to maximize their educational experience.

“I’d be very surprised if my senior course load would have been possible in a nine period schedule,” Chris Wessman said as he read from the letter. “Most likely, I would have had scheduling conflicts earlier in my high school career that would have prevented me from reaching the highest possible level of every single subject. I firmly believe that the consistent diversity of studies played a vital role i my acceptance into Harvard.”

Jeanine Clark, the high school principal, said it is still possible for students to take a rigorous course load and she showed a list of sample schedules (which can be seen in the PDF to the right of this story) showing the number of free periods that could potentially be available to students in a school day.

Clark also said that while there are  provided data showing  that no students fill every free period.  Also, while there are students who take an above average course, the average high school student takes 28.6 credits and less than 1 percent takes more than 36 credits. Students need 22.5 credits in order to graduate.

Board members Margaret O’Leary and Marianne Gilland expressed disappointment over how the proposal was presented to the board and the public. They believe the proposal should have been presented to the board much earlier than February.

Board member Doug Hearle said he supported the schedule change based on the feedback that it has received from the high school faculty.

“I’m convinced that the educators think this is a good move, that we can get things improved by making this move....I don’t see it at all as a function of saving money.”

Board members Martha Arden and Lisa Kiernan also said they supported the schedule change.

The board’s next school board meeting is scheduled on Feb. 27.