3-traditional, 2-block day looks to move forward in bargaining process

The road to a new bell schedule at Benicia High School is a long one, but Principal Brianna Kleinschmidt remains optimistic that progress is being made. It will just take a lot of work and feedback.

According to Kleinschmidt, teachers had been working on finding a new replacement to the traditional six-period, non-rotating schedule for at least six years. After a Western Association of Schools and Colleges visitation team suggested a goal of looking at schedules to help increase staff collaboration and meeting student needs, the Schedule Advisory Committee was established in the 2015-16 school year. The committee— consisting of administrators, teachers, parents and students— looked at data and gathered community input to determine a new schedule for the 2017-18 school year that would minimize stress for students and increase collaboration for teachers.

In May of last year, the committee presented a 7-period rotating block schedule to the school board, but it was later determined to be too cost prohibitive, according to Kleinschmidt.

At the start of the 2016-17 school year, the Schedule Advisory Committee was replaced by the Schedule Implementation Committee (SIC), which consists of parent Darrell Doi, vice principals Kathrine Cole and Sean Thompson, and teachers Carleen Maselli, Katelyn Estudillo, Lisa Honeycutt, Morgan Hill and Krissy Hopper. Cole, Thompson, Hill, Maselli and Doi also served on the Schedule Advisory Committee.

“On Thursday, Sept. 22, we met with the original Schedule Advisory Committee to update them on the status of their recommendation due to it being cost prohibitive as originally presented and explain further work needed,” Kleinschmidt said. “Members of that committee were invited to continue with the Schedule Implementation Committee to be a part of those changes.”

The SIC was originally formed to make minor adjustments to the schedule and help ensure a smooth transition for staff and students alike. In November, an updated schedule was presented. It was mostly the same as the previous recommendation, except it was six periods instead of seven and the class lengths differed. However, that schedule was voted down by the faculty.

“When it went to vote with the teachers to determine support for bargaining, teachers did not support that schedule,” Kleinschmidt said. “There were several reasons provided, including length of class periods and dislike of the rotation of classes.”

Nonetheless, Kleinschmidt said that most teachers did support changing the schedule.

A lot of issues have been present in trying to determine a new schedule. According to Maselli, who is also the president of the Benicia Teachers’ Association, one of the biggest concerns has been trying to make sure all the minutes meet.

“It’s really a monstrous job because you have to meet all the state requirements for how many minutes students have to be in class,” she said. “You also have to consider passing periods and equalizing all the classes, prep time of teachers, staff meetings and Common Planning Time.”

Another issue has been creating a schedule that meets the needs of several different people, including students with extracurricular after-school activities like sports or band, students with after-school jobs, students who have siblings that attend other schools in the district and faculty who not only live outside Benicia and commute but possibly have children who attend schools in other districts.

“It affects everybody that works and lives here in town,” Maselli said.

There is also a possibility that the elementary schools would start earlier.

“One of the major ideas of the schedule in our research for the committee last year was the research on later start times for teenagers,” she said. “If we did indeed start later, that would shift the elementary schools and possibly the middle school into an earlier start time.”

“It could flip-flop everybody where the elementary schools are starting at the 8:00 time, where the secondaries are hitting more the 8:20 and 8:30 times,” she added.

Another thing the SIC has been researching is how to structure a Tutorial period, where students can receive academic help from teachers, make up missing tests or assignments and more. Kleinschmidt noted that more than half of the top 30 schools in California offer a Tutorial period, and the committee will be visiting other schools to see how to implement it.

“For teachers, we want it to be a pure Tutorial where we’re actually helping kids,” Maselli said. “We don’t want extra curriculum added into that.”

The most recent iteration of the bell schedule is one that offers three traditional school days and two block school days. In January, staff was asked to vote between a two-traditional/three-block week or a three-traditional/two-block week, and 33 percent favored the latter, 27 percent favored the former and 16 percent said either option was acceptable. With the latter and “either” option combining to form a 50 percent majority, Kleinschmidt said the next step would be to take it to the BTA for bargaining.

“Once that is complete, we will follow with communications to the community and the students as well as professional development and preparation for our staff,” she said. “We will also continue to work on the details of the Tutorial period and other items that would be related to the change.”

Kleinschmidt remains optimistic that this version of the schedule will move forward in the bargaining and noted that the parties have accepted a three-year agreement where the schedule would be piloted, and changes would be made as necessary.

“Any change of this size takes several years to enact and then to work through needed adjustments,” she said. “I hope to support the continued work of our committees and best represent the voices of our students, staff and community during this process so that we have the best outcome possible.”