Potential changes to Knox High School’s class schedule are drawing concerns from parents.
On Monday, the school board heard from parents who worried that moving away from a block schedule would increase the amount of homework. Susan Himes said the change would make it hard for her son to continue taking part in extracurricular activities while maintaining his grades. “He’s here until nine o’clock on Tuesday and Thursday,” Himes said. “He’s not home at all. He goes from one extracurricular activity to another. And he says, ‘On those two nights, I’m not going to be able to do homework.’”
Amanda Williams worried that students wouldn’t be able to get as much out of science labs, cooking, swimming, and graphics classes with the shorter periods. “I don’t care that the teachers have a longer planning period,” she told board members. “They deserve it. I don’t care that you can cut some teaching jobs and save a few bucks. This is a school and not a business. Our kids should always come first and not politics and not the budget.”
But Superintendent Dr. William Reichhart said that the block schedule puts Knox students at a disadvantage when it comes to things like standardized tests. “Because of the block schedule, our students receive six weeks less instruction than what the same student is doing in Plymouth because our students are only getting that class every other day,” Reichhart explained. “And if you count the minutes of instructional time, we actually will have more instructional time under a regular schedule.”
For example, Reichhart said that under the current schedule with 80-minute periods, students spend 400 minutes in a particular class over two weeks. A standard schedule with 50-minute periods would mean 500 minutes of that class. Students would take one fewer class under that arrangement, though.
“I’ve met with the staff,” Reichhart added. “I’ve met with individual teachers. I’ll meet with any parents. You can schedule an appointment with Mrs. Krueger, and I’m more than happy to work through those issues if you have any.” Reichhart said that changing the schedule does not require the approval of the school board, since it’s more of a building-level issue.
