Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Schedule changes a chore

Going from a four- to seven-period schedule has been anything but easy.

Steve Britton, Prescott High School Principal, told the Prescott School Board, at its regular monthly meeting Tuesday, March 19, the committee went through three drafts before coming up with anything remotely workable.

The schedule presented to the board, he said, wasn't final and nothing has been etched in stone.

Part of the problem was coming up with a "flex" schedule, which would incorporate the best of both worlds, so to speak.

Britton said the group took the fall schedule for periods 1-4, and the spring term for periods 5-7.

The third draft, he said, resulted in certain classes having a block-type schedule (classes more than 55 minutes long), with some courses being split for the fall and spring terms.

Special needs students, he said, need to maintain a consistent time frame on IAP for math and English.

"I think it will all work out well," he said, "and we can get the other IAP courses we need."

The EAST Lab wanted its advanced course to be the length of two periods because students will be working with business and industry along with the community and need more time. These courses, Britton said, will be year-round with no changes made.

The same goes for the new multi-media class, as students there will be working on a Web-TV setup, and want to expand the Web-TV to include news, weather and sports next year.

The multi-media class would be periods 1-2, and remain a year-round course.

One of the main problems came in the area of scheduling science classes. Britton said student could possibly get all of their science requirements out of the way in two years.

The science teacher wanted to block the upper-level courses to prevent this from happening, Britton said, adding blocking these classes could work.

But, he said, if the advanced science courses are made block classes, the students will need somewhere to go at semester, should they opt out of any further science courses.

Some members of the committee, he said, wanted to go with a straight seven-period day, with no block scheduling. This would prevent students getting all their science courses done early.

But, Britton said, students opting out of science at semester could take a course or two in social studies.

At this point, he said, a great deal depends on coaching schedules and the number of students pre-registering for classes next year.

Basically, though, the only exception in seven-period days, he said, will be the EAST Lab, multi-media and special needs areas, which require more time.

No final determination was made in how long classes would be in the seven-period day. Britton said they could be either 50 or 55 minutes.

However, there is a problem in this, he added, with the students involved in the Volunteer Community Credit courses. If the students are doing their volunteer work near the school, he said, there's no problem. But, for those working off campus, time becomes an issue as the students must drive to and from their work-site.

Britton said the ALE students should be kept on the block time frame, though ALE students could wind up getting more classes finished in less time than those in the mainstream classes.

The Wolf Trail, Prescott's newspaper course, also needs to be included in the block scheduling, he said. This class is traditionally open to juniors and seniors only.

No decision was made concerning the schedule at the meeting. The district will wait until after students do their pre-registering for next year before taking any action.

Pearl Bailey, with the Prescott District Educational Association (PDEA), said she and others attended a workshop in Tyler, Texas, on using stories in the classroom as examples.

Bailey, who went as an observer, was called to tell a story, and recalled how her grandmother gave all of her grandchildren the same gift at Christmas.

The workshop, she said, was about bringing personal experiences to the classroom to get messages across.

A Viet Nam veteran will be visiting McRae Middle School later on to talk about his experiences in the war.

Bailey said Read Across America went well, with students making exhibits and having people come to class to read to them.

The boars also approved a trip to Waxahachie, Texas for Phillip Holthoff's gifted and talented class. For the second year, they will be attending Mediaeval Days.

A bid to re-side the MMS gym and agri building was accepted from McLelland Construction. It was the only bid received.

The board accepted three resignations at the close of the meeting. PHS football coach and athletic director Kirk Armitage tendered his resignation, as did PHS Principal Britton. Tresa Goodwin, one of the district's bus drivers, also resigned.

All other certified and administrative personnel were re-hired, with the exception of two who are retiring.