Four And Against Central Valley School District Is In A Heated Debate Over A Proposal To Go To A Four-Period Schedule With Longer Sessions

When Principal Erik Ohlund talks about the four-period day, his focus and passion are on the issues of learning and teaching.

The four-period day proposal has prompted many people in the Central Valley School District to mount their own soapboxes. Recent meetings in the district on the topic have sometimes been heated.

Under the plan, University and Central Valley high schools would move from two semesters of six-period days to three trimesters of four-period days.

Scheduling changes would be complicated and parents have lots of concerns, including:

Will my son or daughter be able to take two Advanced Placement classes, band and foreign language?

Is this change simply designed to make life easier for teachers?

How will release-time students be able to get to (Mormon) seminary on the new schedule?

Will band lose students who can’t work out their

schedules?

How can foreign language students who miss a trimester of French become fluent?

Is the whole thing a done deal?

Speaker John Benham of Minneapolis said after one meeting, “I thought those people were going to kill each other.” Benham was invited to speak by a group of parents with concerns about music programs under the proposed change.

A recent four-period day meeting at Bowdish Junior High started at 7 p.m. “I started walking out the door at about five to 11,” said counselor Pete Townsend. During the meeting, he had repeatedly assured one mother that her child’s schedule could be accommodated. While talking with her at length after the meeting, he realized he may have been wrong.

Scheduling problems are nothing new, Townsend pointed out. A few kids’ “dream schedules” don’t work under a six-period day either.

“One more meeting and I’m free, free, free at last,” said a weary Jon Allan as he headed for the Bowdish parking lot.

Allan, a University High School chemistry teacher, has worked on - and believed in - the four-period day for five years. He and Paul Danelo of Central Valley High School have led the staff committee that researched the four-period day trimester schedule.

Allan, Danelo and the eight other teachers on the committee believe they can teach students more effectively in the block schedule. To skeptics who wonder if teaching just three classes a day is too light a load, they explain that substantial planning is needed to make those classes exciting and worthwhile. They point out that they too have children in the Central Valley district.

“We wouldn’t pursue this if we didn’t honestly think it was the best thing for our children,” Allan said.

In hopes that key questions about learning aren’t lost in the debate, Ohlund, the principal of University High School, offers parents this idea: Stop a minute, as you weigh this controversial plan, and remember your own best educational experience.

He’s betting that most folks won’t remember the day they memorized the location of, say, Botswana. Instead, they’ll recall being utterly engrossed in a project of some sort. “And then the bell rang and they had to drop whatever they were doing,” Ohlund said.

Ohlund and other Central Valley School District educators say total engagement of the student, through hands-on or active learning, is what today’s world demands. With the state’s education reform on the way, students must learn how to use their minds well, they say.

“And one component is time.”

Bingo. The four-period day would give teachers and students 80 minutes per class.

Proponents say the time would allow teachers to teach a concept in depth, using different activities and projects to help the students become engrossed in their learning. Longer classes would mean more thorough understanding on Day 1 - and less review on Day 2.

Skeptics worry that boring teachers wouldn’t learn new tricks, that students’ attention spans would snap and that kids would simply do their homework in class.

Proponents point out that 80 percent of the district’s high school teachers voted to pursue the proposal last fall.

“I’ve got a bunch of 25-year veterans with just five more years to teach,” Ohlund said. “They could just row on out of here without a ripple. But they’re not.”

Allan said his committee is asking the district for extra training, so teachers can become more adept at handling the longer time blocks. Ohlund and other administrators admit that the question of how well teachers adapt is a serious one.

“We’re after a higher outcome,” he said. “We want students to learn to use their minds well.”

Is this change a done deal?

If so, Allan and his committee aren’t in on it.

“At every meeting we ask each other, ‘How do you think it’s going?”’

The Central Valley School Board will hold a public hearing May 23 for comments from members of the community. The board will not vote that night. Its vote is due in early June, following a survey of about 400 households.

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MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: FOUR PERIOD HEARING The Central Valley School Board will hold a public hearing May 23 at CV High School at 7 p.m. The board’s vote is due in early June, following a survey of about 400 households.