The Jefferson City Board of Education voted unanimously Monday to implement policies that will make it easier for Jefferson City High School to transition to a new 10-block schedule.
Although the new plan is designed to offer students the opportunity to enroll in more classes, on Monday night a teacher spoke against the changes and a student tendered a petition with the names of almost 1,000 of his peers who also oppose them.
The policies the board approved Monday night don't directly address the new schedule, but are related to its implementation.
Of the three adjustments, the one that increases the number of credits seniors need to graduate is likely to have the greatest impact. Currently students need 29 credits to earn a diploma. However, in four years students will need 32 credits to cross the stage.
The two other policy changes include:
• Altering the minimum number of semesters students need to graduate to six, although some teens might be able to secure special permission to graduate in five, or even four, semesters.
• Renaming the "Honors" diploma to the "College Prep" diploma.
JCHS science teacher David Ganey asked board members to consider delaying their vote.
"Further investigation is needed to determine how these changes will impact our community," he said,
noting the increasing graduation requirements will "force the district to stay with a 10-block schedule for a long period of time."
The new schedule will affect students at Simonsen Ninth Grade Center, Nichols Career Center and JCHS.
Under the current schedule - which has been in place for approximately 15 years - students typically take four courses or blocks in the fall semester and four more courses or blocks in the spring semester, for a total of 32 courses in a four-year high school career.
Under the new program, students will be able to fit in 36 courses in the career, plus the four FAST classes.
Students also will shift every other day from their "A" day schedule to the "B" day schedule. So, for example, a student might take chemistry, English III, American history, art and orchestra on an "A" day. On a "B" day, they might be enrolled in Spanish III, Algebra II, astronomy and orchestra.
Some classes - for example, band, choir, orchestra and a few of the Advanced Placement courses - will be on both "A" and "B" days.
Ganey raised the concern that with an eight-block schedule, students only have to prepare for four classes each day. With the shift to a 10-block schedule, with rotating "A" and "B" days, both students and teachers will be preparing for more classes every week.
"The change to a 10-block schedule, which will result in over 18 hours of lost instruction time per class, will have a tremendous impact on our students and our faculty," Ganey said, noting that students tend to retain more of what they learn when they study every night.
Tammy Ridgeway, assistant superintendent for secondary schools, said the changes will address the long-standing concern that the existing eight-block schedule was too rigid and prevented students from taking a wider variety of courses.
She noted the current schedule always presented a challenge to performing art students, who often are obligated to enroll in summer school to earn all the credits they need to graduate.
With the new schedule "kids can go to fine arts, or take a foreign language or load up on STEM courses," Ridgeway said.
But the new schedule will mean more work for teachers, who will have to transition from six to seven "preps" per year.
Plus, faculty members will have to teach a "FAST" class, which stands for "Focused Academic Success Time" and is aimed at making sure all students are successful by giving them a designated study time.
Ganey worried: "The increase in graduation requirements will reduce the amount of time that teachers have to teach, reduce our time to develop quality lessons, reduce our time to grade and reduce the ability for us to give prompt, high quality feedback that our students greatly deserve."
Although teachers voted on the new 10-block schedule - it was approved by 83 percent of the affected faculty - Ganey noted retaining the currentl eight-block schedule was never presented as an option.
Ganey was joined by Senior Class President George Tharp, who also raised concerns and shared with the board a petition he said was signed by nearly 1,000 of his peers.
After the vote, Tharp said the new schedule will mean that band and orchestra students will have 32 fewer hours to learn their music in class and AP courses, where students already struggle to cover all the material, will be squeezed even harder.
Although board members ultimately voted unanimously to approve the changes, several recognized the increased workload the changes will mean for teachers.
"It's a tremendous amount of change in a short period of time," Joy Sweeney said.
Doug Whitehead noted the changes were proposed by a faculty committee and supported by a vote of the teachers.
"I applaud the teachers for putting kids first," he said.
In other business on Monday, the board:
• Heard a lengthy presentation on Project Lead the Way, a curriculum designed to stress the STEM subjects: science, technology, engineering and math.
• Adopted the school calendar for the 2015-16 school year.
• Extended a multi-million contract with First Student, the district's busing service.
• Heard a report from Karen Enloe, executive director of the Jefferson City Public Schools Foundation.