Waco Independent School District is moving toward a block scheduling system for high school and middle school students in the fall, resulting in classes up to 95 minutes long, held on alternating days.
The new system will help the district comply with state time requirements for career and technical education and remedial instruction, administrators told Waco ISD trustees Thursday.
The schedule changes will accompany a districtwide shift in school start and end times meant to accommodate bus schedules, Superintendent Susan Kincannon told trustees. Class will begin and end 15 minutes early for elementary and high school students and 15 minutes later for middle schoolers.
New school hours will be 7:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. at elementary schools, 8:15 a.m. to 4 p.m at high schools and 8:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at middle schools.
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The school day adjustment comes as the district prepares to take contracted bus services in house in the fall. A shortage of bus drivers led the district to plan for three routes before and after school instead of the current two.
Kincannon told the board the new times came after extended discussion with the district’s transportation committee, as well as teachers, staff and parents.
“We think they will allow more reliable and efficient service,” she said, acknowledging “not everyone will be happy.”
Meanwhile, block scheduling will result in more than doubling the length of most class periods for most secondary students to 95 minutes on alternating days.
Deena Cornblum, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said the proposed scheduling changes would help the district comply with state time requirements for career technical education classes.
The current 45-minute-long classes could meet the state requirement, but scheduling changes for pep rallies, assemblies and testing could dip the average CTE class time below the minimum mandated by the state, which could mean a loss of around $3 million for CTE instruction, she said.
The district also has to provide additional instruction within the school day for students who fail STAAR math and reading tests, which affected scheduling considerations. Moving from an eight-period to seven-period day could provide the necessary instructional minutes, but at the expense of student elective classes, Cornblum noted.
Planners settled on an A/B alternating block schedule as a compromise meeting state instructional requirements while continuing existing student academics and activities.
David Hamilton, executive director for secondary education, explained how the A/B class scheduling would work.
Middle schools would see an eight-period day where first- and eighth-period classes would be held every day, facilitating sports and extracurricular activities with before and afterschool practices. Second through fourth period classes would be held on Day A with fifth through seventh periods on Day B.
Lunches would fall during third and sixth periods, the middle of the school day, with supplemental instruction classes after third and sixth periods.
Classes would be 95 minutes long except for the daily first and eighth period classes, which would be 48 minutes long. Students would have four minutes between classes.
The A and B Day schedules would alternate and pause for the occasional day off or one requiring a different schedule for student meetings or testing.
The high school class schedule would have daily eighth-period and third-period classes, with periods one through four on Day A and five through seven on Day B. Third period would be divided between class, lunch and WIN classes depending on the student’s lunch assignment.
Classes would be 95 minutes long with third- and eighth-period classes 48 minutes long. Students would have five minutes between classes.
Trustees asked what impact the longer class periods would have on teachers as well as student attention spans, particularly in subjects they have difficulty with. Hamilton said the longer periods would allow teachers to switch between group instruction, small group activities and individual instruction, adding that teachers would get training in such strategies.
Trustee Angelo Ochoa, who noted he began teaching at A.J. Moore Academy, which used block scheduling, wondered if students who miss a day would have more to catch up given the longer class periods. Hamilton said the alternating schedule would offset some of that as students would miss only four classes in a day rather than the current eight.
Board President Stephanie Korteweg, a former Waco ISD elementary teacher, urged the administration to provide teachers with the training and resources needed for the new schedules as well as “grace” for teachers during the transition.
In other action at Thursday’s board meeting, Kincannon said administrators had cut about $6.3 million from next year’s budget shortfall, including 130 positions within the district. Most of the employees in those positions have been reassigned or chose to move to other ones, she noted.
“We think that’s about where we want to stop for now. … It was not easy, I will tell you,” she said. “It will still be challenging to give a raise (to teachers) next year, but I’m not ready to give that up yet.”