Vote Continues Block Schedule

Block scheduling no longer is a pilot program at Lake City High School.

In a unanimous vote Monday, the Coeur d’Alene School Board decided to make the non-traditional schedule standard practice at the school.

Lake City switched from a traditional, six-period day to the block schedule in fall 1998. Instead of taking six, 55-minute classes every day, students take four, 88-minute classes one day and four other classes on alternate days.

After almost two years of the schedule, the high school found that 84 percent of students, 77 percent of parents and 78 percent of faculty supported the schedule.

“The reports are very supportive of what you’re doing,” school board chairwoman Wanda Quinn told Lake City Principal John Brumley. “We wish we could have that kind of support for everything we’re doing.”

Brumley promised the board he would look at ways to be creative if problems arise with the schedule and monitor instruction to make sure it keeps improving.

Because the program is still in its infancy, no conclusive test scores have been compiled to compare the two schedules. Board members said their approval of block scheduling would not prevent them from reviewing it in the future.