Committee works to finalize next year’s schedule

After many complaints from parents, teachers and students in recent years about the Monday bell times and other issues, a districtwide group called the Schedule Advisory Committee (SAC) has been commissioned to come up with an improved schedule for next year.

Due to all 29 members signing a confidentiality agreement, specific information about actual possible schedules hasn’t been disclosed yet. However, the district website says that SAC is “looking forward to exploring schedule options, examining research, collaborating and bringing recommendation to the board about possible changes to district schedules” in time for the 2016-2017 school year.

SAC has already set criteria for the new schedule, including a restriction on the number of classes students can enroll in and a schedule built around the well-being of students. The SAC also noted that it favors a common district bell schedule, which “could increase opportunities for students to access specific courses at Los Gatos.”

In addition, SAC is trying to identify “hot button issues,” any topic that could have a major impact on the new schedule design. Among these are: block rotations, starting times, one district wide schedule versus separate high school schedules, tutorials and class period lengths.

The new schedule, according to committee, is likely to lengthen class periods to support project-based learning aligned with the Common Core State Standards and will allocate teachers the time needed to offer more help and develop strong connections.

The committee, which is being led by a paid professional moderator named Ken Yale, meets two or three times each month, and has had a total of seven meetings since their first convention on Sept 2.

A subcommittee will focus on creating additional opportunities for input “once more specificity around a proposed schedule is achieved” and recently presented six types of schedules for the full committee to study.

The first meeting covered SAC’s basic purposes, process and membership requirements, establishing a Jan. 12 deadline for SAC to present a bell schedule to the district board.

Subsequent meetings followed a similar structure, discussing a rolling schedule versus a modified block schedule and one-week versus two-week cycles. A more detailed summary about each meeting can be found on the district’s website.

The committee created an email link sac@lgsuhsd.org for the public to provide input for the committee to review at the meetings.