Board stages study session to discuss potential high school
scheduling changes
Gilroy – Lunchtime, sports and safety were the main topics that came up during a discussion about Gilroy High School’s bell schedule. Principal James Maxwell said the concerns expressed at Wednesday’s meeting, which was held in the high school library, were the same as those voiced at the bell schedule committee’s bi-monthly sessions.
“What happened last night was same as happened in those committee meetings,” he said. “We learned a lot by studying this. There is no specific schedule that leads (to student achievement).”
It’s difficult to come to a conclusion on such a significant issue and that Wednesday’s response revealed that there are still numerous kinks to work out, Maxwell said.
The committee spent six months reviewing other high school schedules, conducting surveys and discussing the pros and cons of numerous schedules and finally compiled a hybrid block schedule wherein students attend six hour-long classes Monday through Wednesday and three 100-minute classes Thursdays and Fridays.
Assistant Superintendent Jacki Horejs presented the proposed schedule to the board and other meeting attendees, and there were still some unhappy faces in the crowd.
Trustee Jim Rogers said he becomes cranky when he doesn’t eat on time so it concerned him that under the proposed schedule students would be going to lunch from 12:39pm to 1:12pm, Mondays through Wednesdays but on Thursdays and Fridays the lunch period would fall between 11:40am and 12:10pm.
GHS Food Service Supervisor Jody Canali-Ornellas is still trying to push for a split lunch, even though the committee determined that it’s not in the best interest of the students. Currently, she said it’s impossible to serve meals to all the students who swarm the campus at lunch time.
“You are only going to feed 800 kids, bottom line,” she said because there’s just not enough time to serve every student.
There have been concerns raised about safety at lunch since GHS now has a student body of about 2,400 but Maxwell said “we actually believe a double lunch would increase safety issues not decreased them.”
Under a split-lunch scenario, students would be crowded into the quad area because classrooms and the gym would be in use. Students wouldn’t be able to participate in lunch time intramurals, such as handball and soccer, or attend club meetings.
Gilroy Police Officer Cherie Somavia, the high school’s student resource officer, said gangs would be more of a problem too because students would be forced to socialize in a more dense area.
The committee discovered that GHS’ two-hour classes or blocks, are longer than any other school they reviewed. The group concluded that 90-minutes was a better option. They also determined that students need the repetition of certain classes, such as math and foreign language, something they weren’t receiving under the current model.
The committee also determined that collaborative time for teachers needs to be built into the schedule.
The district’s initial objective was to implement the new schedule by fall but Maxwell said he’s not so sure that goal will be met. The principal said his staff needs to vote on the issue because it won’t work if they aren’t generally happy with the final product.
