In The News: High school seeking community input on schedule changes

Education — Online survey, which closes Friday, asks parents to rank three different options.

Newberg High School is requesting feedback from parents to help determine a new scheduling model that will be implemented beginning with the 2015-2016 school year.

Parents have until Friday to complete the survey at www.surveymonkey.com/s/KBP9TXM, which will ask them to rank their preference of three possible options.

The school has been operating on an A/B block schedule since transitioning to the small school model, but the Oregon Department of Education (DOE) announced last year that it would begin enforcing a statute that requires 130 hours of classroom time per high school credit.

District officials determined that the school did not meet that criteria last spring while completing a state-mandated checklist, but were granted a one-year waiver by the DOE this summer because forecasting for the current school year had already been completed and there wasn’t adequate time to research and implement an alternative model.

Assistant principal Dan Malone and teachers Jon Halstead and Jane Eilert formed a committee to research different scheduling models and present options for staff, students and parents to consider.

The committee looked at approximately 40 different 6A and 5A schools in the state and concluded there are three basic models: an A/B block schedule with four daily classes in 18-week semesters, 12-week tri­mesters with five classes per day or seven daily classes in an 18-week semester.

With the block-scheduling option (No. 1 on the survey), classes would be between 84 and 96 minutes in duration, depending on the day. The committee identified the strength of this model is the flexibility it offers for scheduling, especially electives, because it offers the most credit opportunities at 32 over the course of four years.

Newberg requires 26 hours for a standard diploma and 28 for an honors diploma.

The trimester option (No. 2) offers optimal daily instruction time (65-74 minutes), according to the committee, more consistency on a day-to-day basis and 30 credit opportunities.

“Some will say a semester for a kid who’s struggling, 18 weeks can be a long time,” Malone said. “With 12-week trimesters, you have two-thirds of the time to concentrate on that particular subject, then you get to start anew. That’s what I tended to hear.”

The seven-period model features classes that range between 42 and 50 minutes and a consistent daily regimen, but just 28 credit opportunities.

Malone notes that no matter which model is eventually adopted, there can be a variety of ways to implement them and many of the details will have to be ironed out later because there are many factors at play, including bus schedules, constraints from teacher contracts and time for state-mandated career learning standards (advisory).

“Some people will block on a seven-period day, some will throw a block in the middle of the week,” Malone said. “These are the three basic plays, but you can do a lot of variation off of that.”

He added that students were given the chance to take the survey last week.

The committee will meet Sept. 29 to analyze the results and will eventually make a recommendation to superintendent Kym LeBlanc-Esparza. She will then present to the school board, which has been given until November by the state to approve a plan.

The board is scheduled to vote on the matter at its Nov. 18 meeting.

“It’s all done with the idea of what is the best learning environment for our students,” Malone said. “That’s really the lens we started with and what I hope people are using when they are looking at it. I think most are.”

Written by Seth Gordon