It’s commonly known how rumors start, and if they are juicy enough, they spread like wild fire. The latest rumor making its way through the halls is talk of a new schedule.
While this new vamped schedule has been proposed and is likely to be put into place, it has not been passed yet, therefore, nothing is official.
Even though most people are okay with a little change, there are student concerns, such as when they have to get up in the morning, the length of passing periods, and the amount of seminar time.
“With this proposed new schedule, the final bell for school to start will ring at 8:08 and the bell signaling the end of the day will ring at 3:12,” chairperson of the committee Kathy Wagoner said. “The class lengths will change to 86 minutes and the passing periods will now be five minutes in length.”
When there were 1,100 students in the school, the passing times were increased to seven minutes because of crowding and slow movement, Wagoner said. However, now that enrollment is around 800 students, everybody gets to class on time, so the passing periods can be shortened.
Another big change students will see is a difference in seminar time.
“Instead of having seminar on just Gold days, students will have seminar every day,” Wagoner said. “On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, students will have 40 minutes between second and third hour with seminar teachers. Tuesday and Thursday, the students will have the same 40 minutes, but with an academy teacher, dedicating the first 15 minutes to an academy lesson. After the lesson, students will be able to pass out of the academy class.”
Currently, students get approximately 300 minutes of seminar in a two-week period. With the proposed schedule, that number will increase to 340 minutes. This schedule also allows students to have a long seminar period on Gold days one week, and then Maroon the next.
With this new schedule, it can open up many options to students, Wagoner said.
“Students will have more options for elective credits,” Wagoner said. “There will also be more opportunity for students to see teachers since seminar will be a daily occurrence.”
While this schedule has several great qualities, some are probably wondering, “why this change?”
“This topic generated from a negotiations meeting in the summer where the district was interested in HHS teachers teaching six classes instead of the five they teach now,” Wagoner said. “They felt that this change would provide more flexibility with teacher movement.”
Once the discussion started, a research committee of four teachers and three administrators began meeting in September. The committee consists of teachers Kathy Wagoner, Lynn Zimmerman, James Mages and Kelly Ackerman, and administrators Tom Albers, Martin Straub and Dr. Michael Hester.
“The committee discussed the schedule based on teacher feedback and conversations over what the important elements of the block schedule we have now were, and what they would want to keep centered around six teaching periods,” Wagoner said. “Then administration, which has experience with designing schedules, created one presenting it to the committee, then taking it to teachers to gather input. There have already been two meetings, and there is going to be a third.”
This schedule is still in the planning stages and in order for it to be put into place, it needs to be agreed upon by both parties of the negotiated agreement, which includes USD489 Board of Education and the bargaining unit (certified/licensed personnel).