6-7 FLEX Bell Schedule Adopted for 2015-2016
Post date: Jan 8, 2015 11:41:17 PM
As of January 19, 2015 the schedule was revised yet again. Click here for an update.
On January 8, 2015 the Scheduling/Curriculum Transition Team chose to discard the previous tentative schedules which featured 7 periods in grade 9 and 6 periods in grades 10-12. A new tentative schedule was adopted, shown below, which provides a 6-period day for grades 9-12 with an option for a 7th period. All 9-12 faculty members (except in Bruin Academy) would teach 5 periods per day with 1 planning period.
Why this change?
How would the FLEX period work for students?
Most students would take classes in periods 1-6. However, athletics would always be during the 7th FLEX period, so athletes with only six classes per day would take classes in periods 2-7 rather than 1-6. (Pom and cheer spirit squads will still be during 1st period due to gym space availability.)
However, any student could opt for a 1-7 or 2-7 schedule if that meets his or her needs for credits towards graduation, with the caveat that students choosing a 2-7 or 1-7 schedule will NOT be provided district transportation after 7th period UNLESS they are placed in academic support classes, based on test scores, and consequently need a 7-period day. (The district does not currently provide late transportation for athletics, so that is not a change in policy.)
Besides athletics, which courses and teachers would be in a 7th FLEX period?
Which classes are offered during the 7th FLEX Period would depend on student requests and faculty preferences. Faculty members would be polled in the spring for their preference of their instructional day being periods 1-6 or 2-7. Edmond's experience is that such faculty preferences can usually, but not always, be fulfilled. Most of Edmond's 7th FLEX Period classes are in many-section core subjects in their English, math, and social studies departments.
How would Advisories work?
A new Transition Team is being formed to study how best to implement 9th and 10th grade Advisories. Mid-High Assistant Principal Eliot Smith will chair it. Current 9th and 10th grade teachers and others with experience with such periods are being recruited for that team.
For now, the tentative plan is for 9th and 10th grade releases from Advisories, and the 11th and 12th grade Tutorials, to use the following day/subject schedule:
Mondays and Wednesdays
Language Arts, Science, Business, Foreign Languages
Tuesdays and Thursdays
Mathematics, Social Studies, Fine Arts
Fridays
Clubs and faculty meetings
9th and 10th Advisories are mandatory sessions which are part of teachers' and students' 4th period each day. The current plan is that students can be released from their Advisory class, following the above schedule, to get help from another teacher when they are failing a class, need extra help or to complete make-up work, or upon teacher request. 9th and 10th grade students may NOT leave campus for lunch nor use Advisory time for lunch.
How would Tutorials work?
11th and 12th Tutorials would function as they do currently, following the above day/subject schedule. They are mandatory sessions with the teacher of the course in question for students are failing a class, need to make-up work, or upon teacher request, and are voluntary for extra help. If a student is not in Tutorial, he or she has an extended open lunch.
How would teacher lunches work?
9th grade teachers have a 35-minute duty-free lunch from 11:50-12:25 between their 4th period class and Advisory conducted with their 4th period students.
10th grade teachers have a 35-minute duty-free lunch from 12:20-12:55, following their 4th period Advisory/class, with a short break between Advisory and class to allow students attending a different Advisory or Tutorial to return for class.
11th and 12th grade teachers are required to be in their rooms to provide tutorials on the days matching their subject, with a 35-minute duty-free lunch immediately afterward. To provide greater equity with teachers who must conduct daily Advisories and to help monitor the expanded campus, on one of the other days junior and senior teachers will have lunch duty. There are two different lunch duty schedules. If lunch duty is from 11:20-11:50, it is preceded by a 31-minute duty-free lunch from 10:49-11:20. If lunch duty is from 10:55-11:20, it is followed by a 35-minute duty-free lunch from 11:20-11:55.
What about faculty meetings?
9-12 faculty meetings were already problematic since the size of the combined faculties exceeds the capacity of all but some performance spaces in the facility. So having two similar faculty meetings was already likely; in Edmond they have a faculty meeting before Period 1 for teachers working periods 1-6, and another during Period 1 for teachers working periods 2-7. That approach might be used at BHS.
The committee had worked hard to make the best possible schedule combining a 7-period day in Freshman Academy with a 6-period day in grades 10-12. However, freshman teachers raised concerns about how their class periods would vary by up to 9 minutes from one period to another, and about the inequity of their teaching 6 classes per day while everyone else taught 5 classes per day, with consequent effects on overall class load, length of planning period, etc. Ms. Fentress at the Mid-High had worked on a "flex" schedule with an added optional 7th period as a possible alternative.
The Scheduling/Curriculum Transition Team had previously looked at the schedule used in Edmond, which has 6 periods per day plus an optional 7th period. This had been discarded because some students in the 7th period would need district-provided transportation, necessitating additional bus runs. This was initially considered out of bounds, but when the issue was raised, Chuck McCauley, Executive Director of Secondary Instruction, indicated that additional runs were not out of the question.
So the Scheduling/Curriculum Transition Team looked at the Edmond schedule and the proposal from Ms. Fentress and incorporated those ideas, with some shifts to simplify scheduling and tweaks in its details to address various needs. That modified schedule has now been tentatively adopted, pending work with Tri County Technology Center about the scheduling of afternoon classes which might require some additional tweaks.
What are the advantages to this change?
The new schedule equalizes nominal teaching loads across all grades while providing similar lunch and advisory/tutorial times. It allows crossovers between grade levels in all periods EXCEPT 4th period, which is linked to three separate lunches and two different tutorial/advisory times. This:
simplifies building a master schedule, assembly schedules, mandatory drills, programming bells, etc.
increases grade-level crossover opportunities for students and faculty
provides equity in teaching class loads, instructional time, lunch periods, and tutorial/advisory time
still allows support period crossovers between sophomore advisories and 11-12 tutorials, while the freshman advisory is separate but could be accessed by sophomores during their lunch time
By allowing students to choose to take 7 classes instead of 6 at any grade level, it promotes elective enrollments by allowing students to take up to 28 full-year courses over four years, compared to the limit of 25 full-year courses over four years in the previous schedule.
What could this schedule change NOT solve?
9th grade Advisories are still at a separate time than the time slot used for 10th grade Advisories and 11th-12th grade Tutorials. However, sophomores could sacrifice part of their lunch and attend a 9th grade Advisory for a crossover class.
Lunches have five-minute overlaps, so there is not a complete separation of lunch periods, but these times are really passing periods and are not expected to pose a major problem.
Bruin Academy lunch still falls later in the day, but a long break is included in their morning schedule to provide students and faculty with some relief and an opportunity for a snack.
The tentative schedule is not compatible with Tri County Technology Center's current afternoon schedule. TCTC will be consulted to see if they can tweak their schedule to accommodate the BHS reconfiguration.
Closed lunches in grades 9-10 mean mandatory Advisory periods for all students and teachers in those grades. So those are tied to the 4th period of the day to help build a master schedule with "all hands on deck" during 4th period for freshmen and sophomores to help make the separate lunches and Advisories work.