GHS staff agrees on a schedule incorporating one traditional day
and remaining four days of blocks
Gilroy – Block. Hybrid block. Traditional. Split lunches.
Numerous schedules have been studied, suggested and consequently rejected and the district has yet to reach a consensus. But most agree the quest to find a new Gilroy High School bell schedule is a complicated, nerve-racking task – to say the least.
“One thing I learned after sitting on that committee was there is no perfect schedule,” Trustee Rhoda Bress said during Thursday’s board meeting. “It just doesn’t exist.”
It took the bell schedule committee – comprised of district officials, students, parents and school staff – six months to come up with an alternative. After reviewing other high school schedules and conducting surveys, the group presented its revised schedule during a special board meeting in March.
And although the group concluded that two-hour classes are too long – much longer than the blocks at any other school examined – the proposal put forth by Gilroy high teachers during Thursday’s board meeting clings to the theme of long blocks and only incorporates one traditional day.
If the new schedule proposed by teachers is approved, students would attend two classes for 115 minutes and one for 119 minutes, Tuesday through Friday. Mondays would be a traditional six-period day.
Under the current model students attend 114-minute classes. They attend the odd-numbered periods or one, three and five on blue days and even-numbered periods two, four and six on white days. For example, odd numbered classes may be held Monday, Wednesday and Friday one week, then Tuesday and Thursday the next, before starting over.
Another concern is the repetition of certain subjects, such as math and foreign language. Some weeks, students only receive two days of math or foreign language instruction and if they’re absent, even less.
The committee proposed a hybrid block schedule with students attending six, hour-long classes Monday through Wednesday and three 100-minute classes on Thursday and Friday. Since some staffers weren’t happy with the proposal, the board asked Principal James Maxwell to meet with his employees and discuss an alternative.
After reviewing a bevy of options, every department supported a traditional day on Monday with blocks Tuesday through Friday, Maxwell said. By adding one six-period day to the schedule students receive a extra day of class every two weeks, thus addressing the issue of repetition.
Still, the recommendation does allow some leeway. Staff favored adding a 45-minute tutorial period four days a week, reducing blocks to 99 minutes.
“One criteria for the revision of that bell schedule was that they try to find a way to decrease the length of the block,” Assistant Superintendent Jacki Horejs said.
And one way to do that is to implement a tutorial period. But because the tutorial period counts as instructional minutes, teachers have to devise a “viable plan” explaining how the time will be used constructively, Horejs said.
Also, the tutorial period cannot fall during the first or last period of the day, it must be embedded. But staff didn’t have time to develop a specific plan for the tutorial period and requested the board approve the preliminary schedule for next school year.
The teachers plan to bring the issue back to the table once a feasible option has been made. Board members and Superintendent Edwin Diaz will meet next week to discuss the next meeting and will probably decide whether the bell schedule will be placed on the agenda for the June 1 meeting for a second reading.
The first reading was Thursday night.
The proposal does not address the controversial issue of lunch time. GHS Food Service Supervisor Jody Canali-Ornellas wants to switch to a split-lunch period. She’s continually voiced her opinion, saying there isn’t enough time to serve the large lunchtime crowd.
“They gave me 17 minutes for brunch and 33 minutes for lunch,” she said. “I wanted two lunches and I didn’t get it.”
The bell schedule committee and other high school staffers determined that two lunches is not the best option for students.
Gilroy high’s block schedule was implemented in 1992. The block schedule has also undergone some changes during its 13-year span. Initially, students attended every class on Monday and three classes and a tutorial period during the rest of the week.
