Rejected full block a lost opportunity

Imagine returning to school on a dreary Monday morning after a weekend filled with music lessons, a speech and debate tournament and a track meet. Dark circles surround your eyes, you sigh, realizing that you have not completed the homework for the seven classes that lie ahead of you —  it's going to be a long day.

This is the reality of the current schedule that the school has been using for almost a decade. Mondays are a drag, tutorials are few and athletes lose valuable class time from having to skip parts of sixth period for sports. 

Although the proposal of a full block has been brought up time and time again, recently, a new schedule that accommodates the needs of all students had been seriously considered and was extremely close to passing. Unfortunately, the idea was voted down by 55 percent of the staff on April 8.

With the proposed block schedule, odd and even classes would switch off meeting twice or three times a week. As a result, students would never have to turn in homework for all seven classes on the same day. 

With the current schedule, classes on Mondays are often unproductive because of the shorter class periods. More often than not, teachers cannot do more than explain the agenda for the week and maybe hand out a short assignment before the period. However, with the full block, science teachers, for example, could conduct labs, tests and longer lectures on Mondays instead of their usual short and fruitless agendas.

Although teachers have expressed concern about the shorter minute count per semester with the new schedule, the longer class periods allow for more material to be covered in-depth, despite the lessened total instructional time.

The full block schedule would also allow for a late start at 8:50 a.m. on Mondays. For students with busy weekends, this would result in a more manageable transition into another difficult week by reducing the homework load over the weekend.

In addition, Tuesdays through Fridays would contain tutorials built into the school day. Consecutive tutorials four days a week would have allowed students to talk to teachers in all classes equally, as compared to the three nonconsecutive tutorials we have currently. 

Having all tutorials built into the day instead of after sixth period, like it is currently on Wednesdays, would have made it easier for students to attend without missing extracurriculars or other events.

Although the half-hour tutorials have caused some contention, the shorter time would have been compensated for by the creation of a new eighth period. The eighth period on “even” days not only gives students additional time, but also helps athletes who have to skip classes at the end of the school day for sporting events. As a result, most athletes would have a free seventh and a free eight period, allowing them to get out early every day instead of just three times a week as it is now.

Because sixth period would have ended at 1:55 p.m. with the new schedule, athletes would have been able to leave class without missing as much material as they usually do with the current schedule. With the current schedule, athletes lose over 20 minutes of valuable class time.

Due to the proposal’s recent defeat, it is likely that the idea will not be brought up again any time soon. However, if only people were willing to be open to the idea and test it out, we would not have to miss out on this great opportunity to adopt a schedule that several high schools, including our own neighbor Los Gatos High, follow successfully. Sometimes short-term adjustments are necessary for long-term benefits.

Nevertheless, after the staff vote, the full block idea has died once again, and it will take a colossal amount of effort to bring it back to life.