The Palo Alto High School Education Council has released the four-day block schedule for the upcoming 2010-11 school year, according to an e-mail sent from Principal Jacqueline McEvoy to faculty members.
School will begin at 8:15 a.m. every day and end at 3:25 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, according to the final schedule. Students are dismissed an hour earlier on Tuesdays and 30 minutes earlier on Thursdays.
Monday will be a non-block day with seven 50-minute periods. Even-numbered periods (second, fourth and sixth) will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays, while odd-numbered periods (first, third, fifth and seventh) will meet on Wednesdays and Fridays. All block periods are 90 minutes long, with the exception of some third and fourth periods that have an extra five minutes built in for daily announcements, according to the schedule.
Advisory will be 35 minutes long on Tuesdays, set in between second period and brunch. The new tutorial period will be 65 minutes every Thursday, right after sixth period.
Attendance at tutorial is mandatory in order to maximize student benefits from the built-in period, according to McEvoy.
“The Ed Council worked on the philosophical underpinnings of the tutorial period and determined that the most compelling considerations were both the academic success and the social-emotional well-being of each and every student at Paly,” McEvoy wrote in a letter. “Based on these considerations, Ed Council determined that the tutorial period would be mandatory for every student and that, in order to maximize the contact between adults and students, as many certificated staff members as possible, including administrators and counselors, would be involved.”
McEvoy emphasized that the work done during Ed Council’s two-day retreat focused on students’, teachers’ and logistical needs with respect to four major areas: start and end times, duration of block periods, transitions between classes, and the logistics of advisory and tutorial.
She acknowledged that the introduction of a four-day block schedule and a weekly tutorial period would require greater commitment, restructuring, and adjusting from teachers, but said that students’ success is worth the effort.
“We recognize that the implementation of both a four-day block schedule and a tutorial period requires that the teachers at Paly carry the greater burden for restructuring our school day, but we also believe that it is worth the necessary effort and commitment,” McEvoy wrote. “We believe that it is truly in the best interest of our students’ academic success and social-emotional health.”
These changes will continually be evaluated and open to revision as next year’s pilot of the bell schedule unfolds.
“As we move forward with the pilot of our new schedule for next year, we will continue to monitor its effectiveness,” McEvoy concluded.