Fitting more into a day

School is out for the summer at East Valley Middle School, but things will be a little different when students return in the fall. The school will be the first in the area to offer an eight-period day.

The move is being made to give students more class time in math and more electives options, said principal Mark Purvine. “Our (WASL) scores indicate math is our target area,” he said.

The school was already unique because it offered block scheduling with seven periods a day. Students have a three-period block in language arts with the same teacher in the same room, plus a two-period math/science block. Under the new schedule, the math/science block will increase to three periods.

The current offering of electives is anemic. Students may choose from orchestra, band, choir and yearbook. The wood shop room has sat empty for the last year because the class wouldn’t fit into the schedule. The only other options are core support classes that offered academic remediation in reading and math. “There are some other things that need to be in the mix,” he said. “The eight-period day will do a better job of honoring those requirements.”

Under the new schedule students can sign up for an “exploratory wheel” of electives that include visual art, introduction to foreign language, drama, health, technology and fitness. Seventh-graders can choose an economics class and eighth-graders can enroll in a special class on the Holocaust.

Physical education classes will be held every other day and the electives will be taught on the remaining days. A new elective can be taken each trimester or students can sign up for a full year of music. “Kids seem to be excited to have some additional opportunities,” Purvine said.

The empty shop room will become an art room until the school is able to write a grant to get new equipment for the shop so students can work with plastic and metal in addition to wood. Purvine also hopes to add computer-assisted design to the class as well. Then the room will do double duty as an art room and a shop. “It’s a great space that’s gone largely unused. There’s a lot of table space.”

What makes the schedule work is the two three-period blocks. Most students will begin and end the day with a block and they don’t move from room to room between classes. Most of the elective classes are scheduled before and after lunch. “An eight-period day with single classes would look a little bit like a track meet,” Purvine said. “Ours is a unique situation.”

Purvine and a team of teachers have met for weeks to iron out the new schedule, which is now mounted on a large chart in Purvine’s office. “It was a collaborative effort. We recognized we needed to spend more time with our students in math” and knew they needed more electives. “It has taken some time. It’s pretty sensible. We’re proud of it.”

The new schedule was put together with the help of a retired East Valley High School counselor Purvine calls a “scheduling magician.” Class length will shrink from 47 minutes to 40 minutes, which had some teachers concerned about losing teaching time. “It’s a trade off. Teachers are pretty jealous about their time.”

Purvine believes it will work. Some classes, such as the language arts block, will actually have more time. The economics and Holocaust classes that will now be electives have been in the block. Removing them will give teachers more time to work on other subjects. “Teachers have the flexibility to organize and reorganize their time as they deem appropriate,” he said.

Leslee McLachlan, president of the East Valley Education Association, said she hasn’t heard any concern from teachers about the new schedule. Teachers will still get a period of prep time as required. “Our contract says that they get so many minutes of prep each week,” she said. “It can be configured in any number of ways.”

Purvine also isn’t worried about students being overloaded with homework with one more class each day. “They’re high-interest classes that will be activity based. I don’t believe they’ll be overburdened by homework.

“I’m very excited to see how things progress in the coming year.”