What's The Deal With Block Schedule
By: Taylor Hatheway
Just the other week, big news was announced at Jenks High School. Next year, there would be no block scheduling. Students would no longer be spending an hour and a half in each of their classes, twice a week. The Trojan Torch decided to find out why the administration had decided to remove block scheduling and find out how students feel about that.
After interviewing the site principal, David Beiler, the Torch discovered some new information about the decision to remove block scheduling. Jenks found that students with extracurricular activities and those participating in classes at Tech have found block scheduling creates problems with scheduling. There are also teachers who work at multiple sites in the district and block scheduling made it difficult for them to work at different school sites.
“Ultimately, we are hoping that six periods a day provides a more consistent daily experience for everyone,” says Beiler. With each school day being a six-period day, students schedules will remain consistent, allowing easier scheduling for students and staff alike.
Jenks students have also heard rumors of a seven-period school day being implemented sometime in the future. The seven-period day is something that the school is interested in exploring if they ever thought they could feasibly accomplish it. In fact, the different sites have occasionally discussed the possibility of it ever since Beiler was a teacher at the middle school in 2002.
“The biggest reason to ever do a seven period day would be to give students more opportunities and let them more fully explore areas of interest,” says Beiler. The seven-day school period would aim to help students complete extra graduation requirements that are going to be implemented beginning next year, including a new fine arts credit.
“Once again, the compelling reason to ever do this would be to give students more opportunities and flexibility,” says Beiler. The change in schedule isn’t meant to negatively affect students but is instead intended to help them in any way possible.
Students may also be wondering where advisory is going to fit into the new school schedule, with it previously only occurring on block days. Advisory is still going to be a part of the new schedule with using this time for academic help and assemblies being the main drivers for keeping it in the schedule.
While next year’s class schedule is going to look a little different, the changes are made to allow students more flexibility in their schedule and to allow the school district to easily employ staff to work at multiple sites with less confusion about schedules.