Principal Phil Winston addresses parents at the annual State of the School address on Thursday. Throughout his speech, Winston detailed various programs the administration has implemented this year, including the pilot bell schedule, Infinite Campus and Project Cornerstone. – Samara TrillingIt’s one thing to take your message of change to students; it’s another thing to take that message to a room full of active parents concerned about the leadership of their child’s school.

But that’s just what Palo Alto High School Principal Phil Winston did on Thursday night in Paly’s annual State of the School address.

At the forefront of Winston’s speech before the Parent Teacher Student Association was the pilot four-day block schedule. Winston emphasized the administration’s goals for the schedule, which include reducing student stress, increasing points of contact between students and staff, and allowing for more collaboration between staff.

Winston said the later start time has already improved student performance in the classroom.

“The later start time means that we hope they [the students] get more sleep, which means they are more rested, cognition improves, personalities improve, they eat better, they socialize better,” Winston said. “The comments from the teachers that start off the days, in first period or second, are that their students are coming in awake and ready to go. That’s a big deal when you’re talking about a high school student.”

Winston also addressed the newly added Tutorial period, saying the administration has been evaluating feedback from both students and teachers order to make refinements to the system.

“The goal is to make it [Tutorial] work for students,” Winston said. “The goal is not to make it work for staff. We are here for them [the students], so we need to find a way to adapt to their needs.”

Winston explained his role in assessing the effectiveness of the new bell schedule and said he hopes to propose any changes by the end of October after analyzing feedback from the community.

“I wish I could stand here in front of you today and tell you I knew exactly how we were going to do that [assess the bell schedule], but I don’t,” Winston said. “It’s part of working together with this community and figuring out what we want to measure and what we want to use as our baseline and how we are going to do that.”

Additionally, Winston outlined the features of the new Infinite Campus system, which he said is designed to increase communication and ease of use for parents, students and staff.

“When students go home they should be able to access whatever they saw, touched, or heard during class,” Winston said. “That would be my goal.”

Infinite Campus will not replace InClass immediately, but it will in the near future, Winston said. He hopes that all teachers will soon use the Infinite Campus gradebook function, which will allow students and parents to check grades online.

In addition, Winston addressed the Palo Alto Unified School District goals of community and connectedness, including Project Cornerstone, which he hopes will open up the conversation about connecting with students.

“It [Project Cornerstone] is a concerted effort in the city to bring multiple groups together for the common purpose of building community and … a framework to have a conversation as a city and as a community about how we’re connecting to students — our youth — and what we can do better,” Winston said. “It’s an opportunity for us to acknowledge all the good work that’s already happening.”

Finally, Winston laid out the plan for the building program that will transform the Paly campus over the next few years. The multi-use field will be open for use by February 2011, while construction will start on the two-story math/history building and the media arts building in June 2011 for completion in August 2013, according to Winston. He said the performing arts center is expected to be completed by 2015.

“Your students and this community deserve facilities that are top quality, that are impressive, that are built to last, and that’s what they’re going to get,” Winston said.

Parents who attended the event were impressed by the changes the administration has made thus far.

“Our kids are reporting back that the tone of the school feels better, [and] the block schedule seems to be helping with stress,” junior parent Maureen Simons said. “It just feels like everyone’s working for the same purpose.”

“I think it’s an incredibly positive environment that’s being set; the outreach that Phil [Winston] has been doing with students and parents is very sincere and very thorough,” Simons added. “He’s not just saying it, he’s doing it.”