By JUDY RATTNER
Based on results from a survey about the possible change that the school district sent to all district families, and due to concerns raised in letters the Board of Education received, Johnson said he will not recommend the switch in times to the board of education. As of Monday, Jan. 29, the survey results were 876 against the change, to 350 for it.
"This was an overwhelming vote of 'no,'" said Johnson. "The results of the survey clearly tell us that parents and families in the community consider it to be undesirable. If it is not beneficial to them, we won't do it."
Dr. Johnson had publicly discussed the potential switch in start times at the last two Rockville Centre Board of Education meetings - on Dec. 5 and Jan. 16. Under the proposed plan, the elementary schools would have started their day at 7:50 a.m. and ended it at 2:26 p.m. Zero period at the middle and high schools would have started at 8:14 a.m., first period at 8:45 a.m., and the day would have ended at 3:20 p.m. At both school board meetings Johnson said the proposed switch would be made only if it was found to be "cost neutral." An increase in the district's busing costs were of immediate concern, and any cost increase would have doomed the proposed change, Johnson said. He also said that research on the real benefits of a later start time for high school students is "more suggestive than it is conclusive."
Block scheduling under
consideration
In another item relating to time, the school district is exploring the possibility of some form of block scheduling for South Side Middle School and South Side High School. If instituted, this would change the current configuration of class time - now nine periods of 39 minutes each in the middle school, and 40 minutes in the high school, to six one-hour class periods a day, providing four hours of instructional time for each subject over the six-day school cycle. The district believes this would give students and teachers more time within a single instructional period to cover specific subjects, while also providing a 20-minute lunch period for all students, something many high school students do not currently have. Both schools would see extra instructional time over the entire school year, an estimated 27 hours at the high school, and 30 hours at the middle school, resulting from the reduction of nine minutes of "passing time" in the corridors of both schools every day.
Assistant superintendent Delia Garrity said she and a compact-based site team from the high school have visited several other school districts on Long Island, including Port Washington, that have instituted some form of block scheduling, and that there "is a sense of overall satisfaction from all groups." One concern she would be looking into, she said, would be whether the move would allow enough time for support and resource classes. She said she would try to finalize research and make recommendations at the next school board meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 27.
Comments? E-mail rvceditor@liherald.com or call (516) 569-4000 ext. 208
