Block Scheduling Brings Challenge Training Set For Experiment With Longer Classes

The real work is just beginning for officials at Lake City High School, who have spent more than two years researching block scheduling.

With the Coeur d’Alene School Board’s 4-1 approval Monday of a two-year block-scheduling pilot program, Lake City administrators and teachers now must get ready for a big transition in September.

“We’re very, very pleased about the decision,” Lake City Principal John Brumley said. “But right on the heels of that comes a tremendous responsibility.”

Brumley said the school has scheduled two training sessions for teachers to help them make the shift from 55-minute classes to 88-minute ones. On Thursday, school officials will begin a modified registration to add the 24 new electives made possible under block scheduling.

The board debated several hours before approving the scheduling plan that breaks classes into four, 88-minute blocks each day. Students take an alternate group of four classes on opposite days.

Although class periods are longer, the new schedule cuts 15 hours of classes each semester because courses will meet every other day. That reduction in class time worried some of the program’s critics.

Administrators had originally proposed a one-year program, but the board decided block scheduling could best be evaluated after a longer testing period.

Board chairwoman Wanda Quinn was the only member to vote against block scheduling. She said she will support the board’s decision but would have favored a modified block schedule that would have kept teacher preparation time at 55 minutes.

“We would prefer having more student contact time,” Quinn said.

, DataTimes