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Photo by Holden Dempsy
A study hall at Palmetto Scholars Academy.
By Abigail Bailey
PSA Student News
Board members, administration, and leadership advocates at Palmetto Scholars Academy are currently in the process of researching, vetting, and voting on a revised schedule plan for the 2022-2023 academic year.
According to Principal Corrigan Rutherford, there has been feedback from parents, students, and teachers regarding the shortcomings of this year’s schedule. “PSA is a unique place with unique needs. Each year the schedule has been adjusted to meet the needs of our community. Our hope is always to engage our students and offer meaningful opportunities with the gifted and talented environment,” she said.
Some of the issues the groups hope to address with the change include making sure teachers get needed planning blocks, study hall changes, lunch, and the amount of time in each class. In addition, the group is hoping to decrease class size as well as develop a schedule that meets the needs of both middle and high school students.
Mrs. Amber Speights, the assistant principal of academics at PSA, reports that the timing of the decision is important. “The decision for the actual bell schedule, I mean, that can wait,” she says. “The number of sections (classes) - that would be something that should have taken place by February, and that’s just to ensure that students are properly scheduled.”
When asked how the delayed decision would impact students with Dual Enrollment, Mrs. Speights said that the impact would be minimal. “It won’t impact students as much with getting into Dual Enrollment, what it impacts is trying to build the other parts of their schedules around the Dual Enrollment classes.”
On Thursday, PSA teachers and staff were given a survey with five different proposed schedules to rate and comment on. Results of that survey will be shared with the administration and the board and discussed at the board meeting April 19.
One schedule, which would feature six class blocks instead of eight, was proposed during a board meeting on April 5, 2022. Although the meeting was originally intended to vote on the proposed changes, after hearing from teachers, students, and the PSA administration, the vote was tabled until the next regularly scheduled board meeting on April 19.
This schedule proposal originated from the leadership team at Palmetto Scholars, which includes teacher leaders from different departments and grade levels. Dr. Ryan Westberry, the band instructor and the elective department head who is on the leadership council, said that the idea for this schedule stemmed from the pursuit of a planning block for all teachers every day, something that doesn’t always happen in the current schedule.
Dr. Westberry also believes that this proposed schedule would benefit students because it would cause less undue stress and give students the opportunity to dive further into their studies. Dr. Westberry stated, “I am adamantly opposed to the idea that we are a school for GT (Gifted/Talented) and our students should be able to handle eight classes. That kind of thought process, I think, misses the point of GT instruction.” He also said, “You’ve missed the point of Honors classes. It’s not that we do more work; it’s that we do different work.” One of the key arguments supporting a 6-class schedule is that more time in each class per day would give students the opportunity to go further into their work and embrace the material differently from an 8-class schedule. Other teachers support this line of thinking.
Some teachers at PSA, who prefer to remain anonymous, have said that they would rather have an AB schedule with 75 minute blocks and an hour for lunch. When asked about the current schedule, some teachers stated that they “hate it.” Some teachers like the idea of a 6-block schedule instead, but they’re hesitant to support it because they worry that it wouldn’t work in practice as it looks on paper.
As for students, many fear that reducing the number of classes in a year will interfere with study halls and graduation requirements because of the earnable credits per year. But Mrs Rutherford said at PSA, students begin earning high school credits by eighth grade. As a result, most students have the required classes for graduation at the end of their junior year.
However, there are some students who see having less classes as a positive. Ace Smoak, a 9th grader, stated that they would “prefer to have 6 blocks, as it allows for more time in each class.” They also said that they really dislike the current schedule because “there are basically 3 different schedules to remember.”
On another hand, Sanaia Lazarus, also a 9th grader, reported that she prefers the schedule currently in use. “It gives you a day away from all of the classes at some point throughout the week,” she says. She also said she would prefer to have an 8-period day over other schedules.
On yet another branch of the debate, Paxtyn Brown, a 12th grader, said “our AB schedule and then Wednesdays being asynchronous learning was pretty good. Also, AB block schedules worked a lot better in general for the school.”
One major debate, however, is the value of Study Hall.
“The Study Halls are really effective for me,” Jadyn Cline, a 9th grader, reports. “I study before tests. I do homework, and I do classwork.”
However, some students are saying the opposite. Colin Wilder, an 8th grader, said that he doesn’t “do work unless [he] really wants to get it done.”
Another feature of some of the proposed changes is the possibility of a longer or reorganized lunch. Under the current schedule, students have 30 minutes every day to eat and do whatever else they need to do.
With tensions high and hundreds of eyes on the proposal, many members of the PSA community are divided on the changes to the schedule. Students, teachers, and administrators alike seemed to be conflicted on which schedule would be successful at Palmetto Scholars Academy.
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