Block scheduling gets staff thumbs-up
Edgar high school and middle school teachers generally like the current block schedule of 86-minute long classes and would not return to a conventional, eight-period day if that option was available.
This is the message high school principal Tom Mc Carty brought to the Edgar Board of Education last week. McCarty, following up on a request from board member Suzanne Wolf, said he and several teachers reviewed the block schedule, considered changes and found out how other school districts were scheduling their school days.
The principal said a survey of staff documented that 16 out of 26 teachers indicated they would support some changes to the current block schedule, but only minor ones.
“The staff likes the overall structure,” he said.
McCarty said many northcentral Wisconsin schools have block schedules, while many others have standard eight period days.
Those with block schedules include Amherst, Deerfield, Chilton and Phillips. He said Phillips recently switched from a block schedule to an eight-period day, but, after a while, decided to change back.
Schools with eight-period days include Marathon, Abbotsford, Stratford, Mosinee and Bangor.
McCarty said many schools, such as Wausau East, have an eight-period day on certain days of the week and block scheduled classes on the other days. He said schools with block schedules often offer “skinnies,” that is, classes that meet for half a block or 45 minutes.
The principal said the benefits of a block schedule are improving teacherstudent relationships, reducing absences and minimizing student time spent travelling hallways from class to class, but that there was no empirical proof that school schedule had any impact on student achievement on standardized test scores.
McCarty listed the bell schedule for Wisconsin’s school districts with the 10 best ACT scores. The schedules were all different.
The principal said it was “eye-opening” to explore Edgar’s class schedule, but that he did not see a pressing need to make any drastic changes.
“We want to make sure any change is based on need not just a perceived need to change,” he said.
School board president Bill Dittman thanked staff for their work and agreed that any change be justified.
“Don’t change for the sake of change,” he said.
Wolf said she was concerned that Edgar students had too much in band and choir instruction and not enough in English and math.
“A student could have a quarter of his time on fine arts,” she said.
Dittman said that wouldn’t change with an eight period day. If a student took both band and choir, that student would be studying fine arts a quarter of each school day, he said.
McCarty said the study of Edgar’s bell schedule discovered some frustrations about how a resource period is used.
“That’s a number one area we could adjust and improve,” he said.
In other board business:
_ Food service director Rebecca Larson said school lunch participation increased in 2019. She said 71 percent of elementary school students, 85 percent of middle school students and 74 percent of high school students take a hot lunch. She said student lunches were up 750 for the year. Adult lunches were up by 140.
“These are pretty spectacular numbers,” Larson said, given an overall decline in Edgar’s student enrollment.
_ Elementary school principal Lisa Witt said teachers received Math Institute inservice over six days.
_ Administrator Dr. Cari Guden reported the school recently had a school safety drill. Teachers were notified a day ahead of the drill, she said.
_ Board members agreed to have Kira Kalepp and Tiana Borchardt as interns in grades five and four, respectively.
_ Guden reported the county special education has hired Mike Czech and Sue Miller to work at Edgar Public Schools.
