Palo Alto High School Principal Brent Kline discusses what the second semester could look like, including expanding PAUSD+ and revising the current Monday schedule.

According to Kline, the school is considering implementing a more flexible schedule on Mondays compared to this current semester.

“Once we’re out of the purple tier, we have more flexibility to bring small groups of students back on campus or elective classes or more hands-on classes can operate… so those are some the considerations I tend to bring to the table,” Kline said.

Watch the video here:

Transcription:

[00:09:00] The Paly Voice (TPV): What does the future of the hybrid plan look like?

Brent Kline (BK): When it was all said and done, we had just a little bit over both schools had about 10% of our student populations wanting the hybrid model and that number, it was higher than that. But then once the purple came, then. A lot of people chose not to do it as well as I believe that the model and the class limitations had a lot to do with it as well.

So most significantly we can’t do it. Anything that brings large groups of students back to school. And so therefore we will be continuing in the distance learning model during the second semester. This means there will not be any schedule changes for students. We’re not going to throw the master schedule up in the air and redo it.

Students will maintain their current schedules. That being said, we’re going to look at PAUSD+, it’s not the hugest support. It’s a place for students to come if they’re having connection issues or they just need a place that’s quiet, to hang out. And then to get lunch provided and work through zoom in their classes.

What we want to do is looking through and the students that wanted to hybrid model. Our plan is to reach out to every student and to talk about expanding something like the + program, but it will be totally different. You can continue programs that are already started right now on your campus with the new restrictions.

TPV: Do you have any plans to revise the Monday schedule?

BK: The revision of the Monday schedule had a lot to do with the connection it had with the new hybrid model. We still have the opportunity to rethink our Monday, but I think our flexibility will not be as great as it would if we were in the hybrid, but we still have an opportunity to rethink what we do. And to adjust.

Maybe it’s a way of, once we’re out of the purple tier, we have more flexibility to bring small groups of students back or classes, elective classes, or more hands-on classes could operate. So those are some considerations that I tend to bring to the table and we’ll see.

So do I think that the schedule is going to be what it is today? I doubt it. I bet that we’ll have some greater flexibility and some different ways of looking at it that Monday.