Schedule Advisory Committee holds community forum at Benicia High School

(Originally published in the 3/13/16 edition)

    Benicia High School’s Schedule Advisory Committee hosted a community forum Thursday to address questions and concerns about a new schedule that would be implemented in the 2017-2018 school year.

   The Schedule Advisory Committee was created in November, 2015 when Charles Young, superintendent of Benicia Unified School District, was looking to satisfy a goal from the previous Western Association of Schools and Colleges visit. 

   “When I was hired as superintendent, one of the things I noticed in going through documents was that there was a WASC goal in taking a look at schedules and seeing what we can do to increase staff collaboration and meet student needs better,” Young told the audience. “That’s why we put this committee together.”

   The committee- which is comprised of two administrators, six teachers, four students and six parents- looks at data and receives community input to determine which schedules would help decrease stress and anxiety related to the school’s current schedule, best provides opportunities for personalized student support and allows teachers to have dedicated time to collaborate and develop professionally. 

   Currently, Benicia High has a non-rotating six period schedule that runs from 8 a.m. to 3:05 p.m. with the option for students to take an additional early bird class at 7 a.m. Possible changes to the schedule would include a later start time or a rotating block schedule, but English teacher and committee member Morgan Hill noted the committee will not be making a decision on which type of schedule to use and could only make recommendations. 

   “Hopefully after this community forum, we’ll take into consideration everything that you guys have said and take that with us as we move into that decision toward a recommendation process,” she said. 

   To give community members an idea into the complex process that goes into developing a new schedule, a presentation was given by Eric Mapes, the assistant principal of Piedmont High School and Millennium High School in Piedmont. From 1996 to 2014, the school used a 7-day rotating schedule.

   “It was actually a pilot,” Mapes said. “The teachers said it would only be used for one year, and it lasted for 17 years.” 

   The schedule also included staff collaboration days where staff met every seven days and tutorial days where students could go into the office and get help for an hour. Both meetings were scheduled for the end of the day, and there were only 19 staff collaboration and tutorial days each year, which Mapes noted did not allow for much time for students and teachers to connect. 

   A recommendation committee was formed in October 2013 following a site council meeting in September where parents asked about extracurricular activities and sleep. The committee consisted of administrators, certificated and classified staff and an Association of Piedmont Teachers executive board member but not parents or students. The goals included increasing tutorial time and teacher collaboration, providing student support opportunities and protecting their sleep schedules. 

   In the 2014-2015 school year, Piedmont High adopted an alternating 5-day bell schedule where the classes met in 90-minute blocks on rotating days with tutorial and staff collaborations moved toward the beginning of the day and a mandatory tutorial day once a month. However, Mapes noted that people found Mondays to be too long, passing periods too short and students disliked the mandatory tutorials. In 2015-2016, the school adopted a new schedule where the end of Tuesdays through Fridays were increased by five minutes.

   “Students say they’re coming to school more refreshed and connect better with teachers,” Mapes said. 

   Ken Yale, the committee’s facilitator and a founding principal of Millennium High School when it underwent its first schedule change in 1996, said the group was not advocating for a particular type of schedule.

   “If you ask national experts, they will tell you there is no such thing as a perfect schedule,” he said. “A schedule works to the extent that it reflects what the particular outcomes are. Schools have different values and different demographics.”

   English teacher and committee member Kim Thompson said that while there is not enough quantitative data to determine if schedule changes have made major improvements, schools have benefited from them.

   “When they revisited schools that had made the shift and asked them how people are feeling about the shift, none of the schools would go back to their old schedule and all reported being happier and feeling less stressed from students and teachers across the board,” she said. 

   The committee will prepare a written report in April and present a recommendation to the Governing Board in May. For more information, email scheduleadvisorycommittee@gmail.com. 

   

Schedule Advisory Committee recommends new schedule at Benicia High School

(Originally published in the 2/5/16 edition)

   On a regular day of school, Benicia High School students wake up early in the morning to be in class at 8 a.m. Those who take “early bird” classes have to be in the door at 7. The day ends at 3:05, and students who do not have extracurricular activities try to finish the reading and homework they have for that night, giving them just barely enough time to do the things they want before they go to bed and repeat the same routine the next day.

   This schedule has been seen as a source of frustration for many Benicia High students and their parents, which has led to the creation of the Schedule Advisory Committee. The group’s goal is to develop a recommendation for a new bell schedule.

   According to Shirin Samiljan, an SAC member and parent of two Benicia High Schoolers, Benicia Unified School District Superintendent Charles Young and Benicia High administrators invited members of the community to participate in SAC. The committee is made up of students, parents, teachers and administrators. Among those serving on the council are new BUSD trustee Stacy Holguin, vice principals Kathrine Cole and Sean Thompson, and teachers Morgan Hill, Carleen Maselli, Matt O’Reilly, Kathryn Osmer, Stacy Starkweather and Kim Thompson.

   “We have been meeting and working, looking at data and talking to students and teachers since November of 2015,” Samiljan said. “We need to make a recommendation in May of 2016. Implementation will be fall of 2017.”

   Samiljan feels the current schedule creates a lot of stress for students.

   “It is hard for a university-bound student to cram in all their classes, participate in extracurriculars, have any time for themselves and get enough sleep,” she said. “We are one of the last few schools in the area who still use a traditional non-rotating schedule. Research shows that teenagers need more than 8 hours of sleep every night.”

   Community members agree. A petition was set up on change.org by BUSD substitute teacher Annette Balter requesting a later start time for Benicia High. As of press time, the petition has reached 215 signatures. 

   Samiljan also believes that if classes meet fewer times a week for longer periods of time, there will be more opportunities to support students and “more time for teachers to collaborate across departments, have student-focused meetings and to have department meetings.” 

   However, SAC has not yet determined a specific schedule for students. 

   “There are so many options that at this point, we as a committee have not yet sat down with sample schedules,” Samiljan said. “Department heads are talking to teachers, getting their input and we as a committee are prioritizing our desired outcomes.”

   One possibility is a block schedule where certain classes would meet on certain days- e.g., Monday/Wednesday/Friday and Tuesday/Thursday- for extended periods of time, not unlike college schedules. However, Samiljan said nothing is set in stone.

   “At this point we have not looked at any schedule in particular,” she said. “We are not starting with a schedule and trying to come up with ideas for why that one schedule will meet these requirements. Instead, we are looking at the requirements and sorting those, and then we will determine which schedule is closest.”

   According to Samiljan, the meetings are always on point.

   “We never go late, and we always stick to the agenda,” she said. “In fact, I've never before participated in any committee that is this focused and well-run.”

   Samiljan says SAC will be inviting schools that have adopted schedule changes to come to Benicia to participate in a public forum. The date has not yet been announced, but Samiljan says it will likely be between Tuesday, March 8 and Wednesday, March 16. For more information on the committee, email scheduleadvisorycommittee@gmail.com or visit the group’s Facebook page at Facebook.com/groupsBenicia.SAC.