District to reevaluate schedule

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By Dan King

Whitehall School District Superintendent Liz Legault said the district will begin working toward a new block schedule for the 2015-16 school year.

In November, the school board voted to repeal a Legault-backed 5-block schedule that was implemented in the beginning of the year, and go back to a modified version of the 9-period schedule that was used in previous years.

Legault said she is not happy with the current 9-period schedule, because it has too much down time for students. Because of the downtime, administration and guidance will look toward another new schedule for next school year.

“Everyone will be invited to the table and we’d like everyone, including students to be involved,” she said.

Legault explained that she will meet with the guidance department and high school Principal Kelly McHugh on the Jan. 29 to discuss scheduling ideas.

The goal of a new schedule is to create one that has less down time, longer instructional periods and a team concept, Legault said.

“As we return after the holiday break we will be convening a scheduling committee to discuss next year’s schedule.” Legault said, in a post on the district’s website. “Regardless, of what the ‘shell’ looks like time wise, we must remain cognizant of 90-minute literacy blocks, writing daily in every content area, and using data to drive teacher instruction.”

She added that another goal of revisiting the potential of a block-style schedule is to keep the 10.5 faculty members that were hired as a result of block scheduling.

“We have 10.5 new teachers that I’d like to keep and I think have a lot to offer,” Legault stated. “It’s not the main reason that we are looking at the schedule, but I’d really like to see them stay.”

Although repealing the block schedule required action from the board of education, re-implementing a block schedule would not require board action, Legault explained.

“No, it doesn’t require board action,” she said. “The schedule is an administrative decision. We could do it ourselves, but we’d really like to make shared decisions, along with the board.”