Staff votes against moving to a full block schedule next year

March 10, 2009 — by Annie Lee

Students can expect to go to all their classes on Mondays next year after teachers voted 42-27 last week to reject a proposal to make every day a block schedule, according to principal Jeff Anderson.

Students can expect to go to all their classes on Mondays next year after teachers voted 42-27 last week to reject a proposal to make every day a block schedule, according to principal Jeff Anderson.

The discussion heated up when the Los Gatos High administration decided to switch to a full block schedule for the ‘09-10 school year. In addition, a survey showed that 55 percent of SHS students would like to get rid of the Monday schedule if given the option.

A full block schedule would also mean that every other week, classes would meet only twice—a major concern for many teachers. In addition, the teachers who voted against the proposal worried about personal conflicts with the weekly alternating schedule, a decrease in time for foreign language teachers to “touch base” with their students, and many other reasons.

Although the staff chose to end further discussion of the full block schedule for this year, the administration is still looking to relieve the stress of Mondays. Moving the Wednesday tutorial to a different time and possibly organizing teachers to minimize the number of tests students have piled up on a single Monday are two possibilities, Anderson said.

A full block schedule may still be possible for future years.

“We rushed through to try and get a decision from the faculty,” said Anderson. “Next year, if we take a little longer time for the conversation and start earlier, there is a possibility—not that it’s guaranteed but a possibility—that more students and teachers will be comfortable going to the A-B [schedule] and getting rid of Mondays.”

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