Crowd Supports Lake City’S Block System

Parents, faculty and students showed up to overwhelmingly support Lake City High School’s new block schedule Monday night.

“The block schedule is a great program and I don’t see how you guys could not vote for it,” Becky Thilo, an LCHS freshman said, addressing the Coeur d’Alene School Board.

The board held a public hearing Monday and will make a final decision at its Jan. 24 meeting on whether LCHS will continue with the block schedule.

Lake City switched from a traditional six-period day to the block schedule in the fall of 1998. Instead of taking six, 55-minute classes every day, students take four, 88-minute classes one day, switch to four others the next day, then back to the other four. That way, students take eight classes per year, instead of six. The schedule is called an “AB Rollover Block Schedule.”

To make room for the increased class time, the schedule decreases lunch by five minutes and drops the total amount of time spent on each subject by 15 hours yearly, from 82.5 to 67.5. Some faculty members said that causes some course material to be eliminated. Others counter that more elective courses allow students to delve more deeply into subjects.

Proponents of the block say it allows students to take more classes that interest them, allows teachers to teach in more depth and increases the amount of yearly instructional hours, from 990 to 1,056. Studies have shown that it also decreases discipline problems and improves students’ attitudes toward school.

A study done by the school showed that 84 percent of students, 77 percent of parents and 78 percent of faculty support the block schedule.

“Under this schedule, my daughter is challenged, she is interested, and she is learning life skills. Most important, she looks forward to coming to school,” said parent Teresa Bruch.

“It’s one of the most positive experiences in 23 years of teaching that I’ve been through,” said Van Troxel, football coach and a teacher in the physical education, health and fitness department. Troxel’s department, along with most others, unanimously supports the new schedule.

Not every comment was positive, though.

One parent brought up two negative aspects of the block schedule, saying she couldn’t decide whether to support or oppose it. Debbie Copstead said she is concerned that when students miss one day of school, they’re missing the equivalent of two days, in four classes. She also said her son struggles in school and needs to have subjects such as math and foreign language every day to understand them.

School officials acknowledged that some adjustments may need to be made to the schedule. And LCHS Principal John Brumley said he was committed to making any changes that are needed.

But at the end of the meeting, the district’s top administrator, Superintendent David Rawls, came out in support of it.

“I would endorse this AB Rollover schedule,” he said. “It has invested energy. It has the support of the students, staff and parents. They believe in it. This is a positive step forward.”