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The Student News Site of Niles West High School

Niles West News

The Student News Site of Niles West High School

Niles West News

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Committee Studies School-Day Schedule

A School Day Study Committee consisting of parents, teachers, students, and administrators has been assembled to study various school day schedules and possibly change Niles West’s schedule for the 2012-2013 school year.

The parent and teacher surveys were disclosed last week, and the student survey is expected to come out this week via email.

“The data from the survey should give us a good indication of how students feel the schedule works for them, and if they feel changes should be made,” wrote assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction Anne Roloff in an email.

Although there is no specific schedule that the school board and teachers’ union have in mind, they still want to look into different types of schedules as options, according to Roloff.

“As educators we all believe that, like curriculum and instruction, our school day should be re-examined periodically as it is fundamental to our profession,” wrote Roloff.

According to Steve Grossman, NTFT (teacher’s union) vice president and social studies teacher who is a member of the school-day committee, the administration presented four possible school day schedules (one eight-period day and three block-type schedules). All the proposals lengthened periods (the amount of time a student would be in a given class) and reduced the number of periods (fewer classes), according to Grossman. Principal Kaine Osburn said one of the models was Highland Park’s schedule, which has a nine-period configuration three days a week (Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays) and a more modular schedule on the remaining days.

Grossman said the union is concerned that the new school day might result in fewer electives (and fewer opportunities for students to take electives) and a reduction in staffing.

“The structure of our school day is an important issue for all parties: students, parents, teachers, and the administration.  Before making any changes this issue should be thoroughly studied to see if we can find a consensus about what will work best for our district.  At that point, the board and the union would need to negotiate the details of any proposed change,” Grossman said.

Osburn, however, said that an eight-period day would not result in fewer opportunities for electives.

“As long as early-bird still existed, there would be exactly the same or better opportunities for electives as right now.  Because of our current lab-schedule, if a student has a lab class, then he or she is on an eight-period schedule,” he said.  “Thus, changing to an actual eight-period day wouldn’t reduce the opportunities to take electives. So the claim of lost electives due to an eight-period day is spurious.”

Some teachers said they are afraid that if class periods are cut, valuable time will be lost.

“[If we switched to eight longer periods], I believe it would do serious damage to electives, especially newspaper and yearbook productions. When kids have a limited schedule, those are the first to go,” said yearbook adviser and English teacher Sharon Swanson.

“I think that there will be one period less for planning and meeting with students,” said math teacher Kate Buttitta.

Grossman agrees with Buttitta.

“If there were eight longer periods, there would be reduced elective offerings, and for teachers, there’s a lot that goes in to teaching a class, so it would give us less time doing behind-the-scenes work like planning, grading, and meeting with students,” he said.

Junior Connor Dyer said he is not in favor of a schedule change.

“I like the school day how it is. With nine periods, I am able to have a lunch and take core classes and classes that I actually want to take. With a schedule change, I might not be able to take electives like health careers,” Dyer said.

Others are more keen on a change.

“If there were less periods in the day, it would take pressure off longer days. Kids have a lot of homework, especially sophomore and junior years,” said sophomore Kris Trivedi.

According to Grossman, even if the schedule for next year does not change, not everyone will be completely satisfied.

“There is no one perfect school day because some models work well for some classes and not others. [For example], blocks don’t work as well for math and foreign language [courses] as they do in science classes,” said Grossman.

“There are positive and negatives to both mods and periods. I think you can make anything work,” said Battitta.

“As a social studies teacher, it doesn’t matter to me as much as other teachers. I can teach my class in lots of ways and it doesn’t matter much. As a union leader, I have to think of other teachers. We have to think about how this affects everyone,” said Grossman.

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  • N

    Nichole HanusiakJul 1, 2012 at 10:43 PM

    I do not think we should change our schedule. I am going to be a sophomore which means I was a freshman, which means I am going to have to get used to a whole other schedule. It’s not just me the incoming freshman don’t even know the school, in all honesty if they changed the schedule I would be the first one who would organizes the partitions. Do Not Change The Schedule Please.

    Reply
  • K

    Kevin SelageaOct 11, 2011 at 8:51 PM

    Honestly I would agree with what Cam G said because to me there’s no point on changing the school schedule. Most of us in this entire school are already used to the schedule that we have now. So changing the school schedule wouldn’t really be a good idea. Especially if you had just finished your Freshmen year and you’re about to start your Sophomore year. That means that you would have get used to the new bell schedules all over again. So I say that we shouldn’t change the school-day schedule, and just stick with the one we have now. Since to me it is pretty easy to follow.

    Reply
  • G

    Grace ParkOct 10, 2011 at 10:05 AM

    I think that it’s totally crazy that the freshmen didn’t even take the survey. We were “allowed to, but not required”, because apparently, we haven’t been in school long enough to form opinions. ExCUSE me? I think that we have PLENTY of opinions about what this school should change, and the length of our shcool day is something they SHOULDN’T. Like most people have already said, many electives will have to be dropped. Right now, I’m barely squeezing in everything that I want to do. I even had to give up 2 other electives, just because there is no time for them. There is NO WAY I want to change the length of the school days now! And if they are changing the length, at least consider making it LONGER.

    Reply
  • C

    Cam G.Oct 7, 2011 at 10:44 AM

    I’m between both ideas on this subject, but I would rather stay with the schedule we have now because it’s what I’m used to because I’m a Junior.

    Reply
  • M

    Momcilo BicaninOct 6, 2011 at 11:21 AM

    I think we should keep the school day the same because it is easier to follow. If we change it, it would take alot longer to get used to and maybe hard to follow. Some people forget what day it is and some people forget what period it is. So this means SCHEDULE SHOULD STAY THE SAME!!

    Reply
  • A

    annie pagettOct 2, 2011 at 9:57 PM

    Changing the school day is a bad idea. With the kids that are currently attending Niles west high school, we don’t want to have shortened periods, because that would mean giving up classes and giving up teachers we really like. Although if we were to fix the schedule we should make different spots available for lunches, we could have prds 3-8 serving lunches and it gives more room to everyone in the café and commons. But if we do end up changing our schedule around I am most worried about the freshman getting totally lost. They barley know the school and they will all I guarantee it be lost every day. One thing we can see for sure is that if we change the daily schedule, we are looking at most of the kids like seniors and juniors, not showing up for school and not graduating on time. When you have different classes’ everyday it can mess with a person’s head. It can mix them up and cause them to go to the wrong classes. It plays a big factor in losing concentration and interest in actually attending school. When you factor in freshman it can become a lot more difficult. Also when you factor in the fact that there would a lot of unexplored areas that people want to explore and by changing the schedule it would ruin the hopes of everyone attending Niles west. If we changed it all completely just to match up to highland park high school, it not really worth it to change the schedule that everyone is used to and likes. By changing schedules it eliminates jobs for teachers as well. that is why we shouldnt change anything about the schedule at Niles West high school.

    Reply
  • C

    Chris TylerSep 29, 2011 at 2:47 PM

    I don’t understand why they still don’t want the school to be the same anymore. If they keep changing it they really going to mess up this school and if they do change this schedule then I’m leaving this school. So they really making a mistake for changing the school schedule.

    Reply
  • I

    imran ahmadSep 27, 2011 at 3:08 PM

    The school should keep the same schedule or start school at 7am and end around 2 30pm.

    Reply
  • M

    MorganSep 25, 2011 at 2:49 PM

    I personally think this is completely unnessasary. I think there are WAY more important things the school should be concerned about.

    I already don’t have a free period/lunch. I have a full block schedule, which is complicated sometimes, but I like it. I think it is so STUPID that the school is considering this. I am forced to take classes that I hate, but changing the schedule I would have to drop an elective that I like taking, like newspaper or German. No matter how it’s spun, you loose options.

    The early bird option works good for some students, but when I go to school for more than eight hours a day anyway, I do NOT want to be forced to take early bird to keep the classes that I enjoy.

    And what about those freshmen that have double blocks of math, reading and science. Plus the electives, gym and foriegn language, who is anyone supposed to be able to fill out college/ graduation requirements when their struggling with a schedule that causes these problems?

    Reply
  • S

    Sunny BharuchaSep 22, 2011 at 7:42 PM

    Honestly, I think the 9 period schedule works fine. Less periods would mean less elective classes, and electives are useful in discovering what you might want to do after high school. As for the length, I think that periods should be a little shorter, but not that much. I mean, even if periods were 38 minutes on our 9 period schedule, that would shave 36 minutes off our whole day. Now in classes that probably won’t make much of a difference anyway, but we get to go home sooner and trust me, the end of the day drags no matter how you put it so you might as well shorten it.

    Reply
    • M

      magdaSep 22, 2011 at 8:19 PM

      Why make our lives more complicated and switch to a different set up of our school day. We have enough stress to deal with on a daily basis and honestly nobody needs more. 🙂 I currently like my schedule and have time to see teachers for extra help. I like to have a study hall that way I could do and finish most of my homework in school instead of dragging most of my heavy books home. The the current 9 period schedule is in my opinion perfect for athletes and students involved in extra-curricular activities. I like the schedule as it is but the one thing that I think should change is not having homeroom because I think it is a waste of time and in some cases we see the news and get information about different clubs, and activities late, and either way end up watching them at home. Most video announcments are long and by the time our teachers log into the computers and play it the bell rings. That, in my opinion is the only thing I would change.

      And even after trying to explain the idea that we would have time for electives, I still don’t see how that would work out, escpecially for the incoming freshman that are supposedly supposed to have double math, english, and science… what about the other hard core classes that are required. I still cannot picture how we would still have the opportunity to take an elective with a shortened day?

      Reply
  • I

    Ivana KosirSep 22, 2011 at 9:21 AM

    Update: The student surveys will be distributed during homeroom today, Thursday, Sept. 22.

    Reply
  • R

    Rozy KanjeeSep 20, 2011 at 9:26 PM

    Ivana, this is a GREAT article! I think it highlights all of the important parts. For someone who has seen a little bit of everything I think it’s important that Niles West should know that changing the schedule might be beneficial.

    My older sister went to high school with the mods system, and before (a little over 5 years ago) the mods were working for the longest time until they changed it to 9 periods. When I asked her about mods, she said that it was really convenient and students had a lot of free time to catch up on studying or go to their lockers. One class would be 3 or 4 mods and then you could have 1 or 2 mods of free time and do whatever catch up you needed to. It was a working system.

    As for blocks, I think that the school should highly consider it. My first year in college and we don’t have the same classes every single day. I have Greek culture Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; and then Philosophy Tuesday, Thursday, and discussions on Friday. It’s nothing like high school where everyday is the same. It was confusing for me to adjust, and took me forever to remember my schedule. Having blocks would get students more prepared for the lifestyle college will bring.
    And it’s not a bad thing. Having class every other day is fun because it changes things up. It makes it a lot less structured and confined. Not that it isn’t structured, it is, it just gives you a little more leeway. During the breaks you have so many more opportunities to (again) catch up on work or study.

    Lastly, (I feel like I’m writing an essay) Northside Prep is on an 8 period schedule and a friend of mine went there and described to me how her day was like. It was basically the exact same as ours except one less period. Although she did tell me that West had a lot more electives than Northside I didn’t see much of a difference. I believe that they even got let out about 10 minutes before us.

    If it were me, I wouldn’t change to an 8 period schedule. I believe that the classes should be longer, which is why I strongly urge the blocks or even returning to the mods. The 8 period schedule would need to have all of the electives that West offers in the same way it offers it to the students as a 9 period schedule. I think change could be good. It will help prepare for college. As cliche as THAT sounds.

    Anyways, GOOD JOB! And hi Niles West!

    Reply
    • H

      Harris MillerSep 24, 2011 at 4:54 PM

      As a recent graduate of Niles West, I thought that the nine period schedule worked just fine. Then, when my classes started on August 25th at Lake Forest College, it felt really strange to have loads of freetime. I was not used to having extra time for studying during the day. Anyhow, it took me roughly five weeks to become acoustomed to the college schedule. If Niles Township District 219 can change the schedule to a college-style one, that would be great. I believe that it will help high school students manage their freetime more wisely and feel less stressed when beginning college. Also, by doing so, students will be able to complete their homework in a managed amount of time similar to what a college student would do. It will teach them how to not miss a homework assignment assigned in class with lots of freetime because their time will be better spent. That means that students will also have more time to participate in extra-curricular activities and have a job.

      With everything combined, I’m sure that the college-style schedule will work. Remember that in high school, students are preparing for college. So, I believe that this is a big step towards District 219 being more college-prep based because students must be prepared. Also, I suggest that District 219 should contact Lake Forest College and some other area colleges to have an idea of how our schedules work because if the district does not know how a college schedule operates, then it cannot be implemented.

      I agree with Rozy K. because the block schedule is similar to the college schedule. So, if District 219 would rather have that, its a good alternative.

      Is there a survey coming out for recent alumni of D219 on the possible schedule changes? I would be willing to give feedback and tell how I manage my freetime in college. It may help the Board of Education decide on a new schedule.

      I look forward to visiting during homecoming week and I say hi to everyone at District 219!

      Reply
  • B

    Benny TruongSep 20, 2011 at 8:43 PM

    Ah the perks about being a senior. If West fails with changing its schedules, the class of 2012 won’t have to be victims of it! 😀 I love the 9 periods a day. If I didn’t have the 9 periods, I couldn’t have a lunch or take all my core classes while taking my electives in Spanish, Civil Engineering, or Business Strategies/ Entrepreneurship. I also would not have a study hall where I could catch up on homework or study. Again, West and the District needs to learn when to change and when something is better left alone.

    Reply
    • M

      magdaOct 10, 2011 at 6:02 PM

      I totally agree with you… I would really dislike if they changed the schedule escpecially since i’m graduating next year and would not want to get used to another schedule.

      Reply
  • T

    Taylor GenisSep 20, 2011 at 8:20 PM

    I think the school day should stay the same. Our 9 period schedule has been working for years. Why add in something new that might not turn out to be a good idea? School is fine the way it is & it doesn’t need to be changed. 🙂

    Reply
  • G

    Gabby AbesamisSep 20, 2011 at 7:21 PM

    The school schedule is fine the way it is. The only way I would agree to an 8 period school day is if the school drops double period science classes. Those are useless.

    Reply
    • V

      Vicky RoblesSep 21, 2011 at 9:23 AM

      That is a good idea. Lets get rid of the double periods instead.

      Reply
  • L

    louisSep 20, 2011 at 6:04 PM

    its perfect how it is

    Reply
  • A

    abbySep 20, 2011 at 4:43 PM

    studies*

    Reply
    • E

      editorSep 20, 2011 at 11:25 PM

      thanks.

      Reply
  • K

    Krista DawsonSep 20, 2011 at 11:33 AM

    I don’t think we need to change anything. Our 9 periods are well balanced and leave opportunity for electives and free periods. Whats wrong with that?

    Reply
  • M

    Morgan LoodSep 20, 2011 at 10:22 AM

    the mods schedule sounds legit! too bad class of 2012 wouldn’t witness it!
    NWN woot!!

    Reply
  • A

    Amanda MuirSep 20, 2011 at 10:21 AM

    I feel that the schedule is fine as it is. If we had an 8 period long day, I would have to quit one of my electives. I cannot take early bird due to the fact my parents can’t drive me to school. Thus I would have less of an opportunity for electives. I would have to either quit Band or Spanish, and I am not willing to do that. Maybe if there was an early bird bus I could take early bird. Maybe the school should have block scheduling, which every day a student would have 2-3 core classes for an 1 1/2 hours (I am not sure how many of those classes a day). You would have your classes alternating according to the day (Monday is science, history- Tuesday is English and math) Then we have our electives everyday. Thus on Fridays we would have a regular 9 period school day. This schedule worked for me in 7th grade, why not now? It allowed teachers to teach for a longer period of time and it gave students 2 days to finish their homework and study (Except from Thursday to Friday) I hope that idea helps 🙂

    Reply
    • K

      Kaine OsburnSep 21, 2011 at 1:46 PM

      Amanda and other students who believe they would lose electives:

      1. Neither the board nor the administration currently advocates any specific change in school day.
      2. Mr. Grossman and the other comments in the article are simply wrong. A change to an 8 period day would not be the cause of any loss of elective choices for a student who already takes a Science course. You wouldn’t have to give up Spanish or Band, etc.
      3. An 8 period day could actually result in more efficient, easier scheduling of electives.
      4. The current school day is fine, but does cause problems, including overcrowded lunches and overcrowded study halls.

      Neither the board nor administration is picking a particular school day, but the article quotes people who are misinformed and spreading that misinformation. It is important that students, teachers, and parents are better informed about school day.

      Reply
      • M

        Merrill MillerSep 21, 2011 at 11:42 PM

        I believe that the current school day is fine the way it is. Mr. Osburn said that the current schedule does cause overcrowding during lunch periods and study halls, which is for sure true, but I think there might be another way to change those specific problems without changing the whole schedule of the school day.

        Reply
      • I

        Isabelle DavisSep 22, 2011 at 8:40 AM

        Just one question: how? Because I don’t get how having one less period could result in the same amount of electives when we have required courses.

        Reply
        • K

          Kaine OsburnSep 22, 2011 at 4:10 PM

          Isabelle,

          A straightforward way to think of it is this way. If there are 9 periods, then you should be able to take 9 classes. However, since lab classes meet twice a week, you’re really only taking 8 classes. On the days you don’t have lab, you don’t fill that space with a new class. (It’s a study hall, right?). So you still only end up taking 8 classes (think of lunch and PE as a class), so this ends up working like an 8 period day. Perhaps that helps. I am not including Early Bird in this scenario. Email me separately if you would like to sit down and I can go over it visually too.

          Reply
          • B

            BenSep 28, 2011 at 7:10 PM

            We would still lose a period where we can go to the IRC, Lit Center, get help from our teachers, or catch up in our classes. I use my study halls to catch up in engineering, do DECA related activities, or go to the IRC. Without a study hall every other day, what are the underclassmen suppose to do? Skip lunch? Not everyone has a lunch to skip. Again, I am glad to be a senior.

          • G

            Grace POct 10, 2011 at 11:14 PM

            Actually, some of us have/give music lessons during study hall, so technically we still have 9 periods.

          • D

            Dustin EasterOct 11, 2011 at 8:44 PM

            To be honest, I have trouble finding time to meet with teachers and utilize all the “world class facilities” NIles West supplies. With limited after school and before school time (I take early bird and I am involved in athletics), places like the Lit Center and the IRC that extra period three times a week is perfect for me to go and utilize these places. Some students don’t even have lunches, so to take away that extra period is taking away their hopes of going to these places. Let’s say that a student takes an Early Bird course, has no lunch in favor of an elective, and participates in Athletics, which is common. What if one of his teachers assigns him/her a paper that must be checked by a Lit Center tutor. When is this student supposed to go and do this on an eight period schedule? And, regardless of whether or not it’s mandatory, should a student need help with an assignment or writing a paper, when could they go to see someone for help? This new schedule will not only severely limit students that are active and take a larger class load, but great places like the Lit Center will lose tutors AND tutees. That extra period in the day is useful to not just teachers but students too. Please don’t limit us. The schedule is fine the way it is now, and change for the sake of itself is not always the right path to take.

          • D

            DMCOct 19, 2011 at 11:29 AM

            I think we should have a college-like schedule. It would be easier for everyone. Mr.Osburn, I would like to show you, the committee, and the board what I’m talking about.

  • L

    luke hoffmanSep 20, 2011 at 10:03 AM

    i think the schedule is good as it is and if they change it many electives will be negatively affected.

    Reply
  • V

    Vicky RoblesSep 20, 2011 at 9:31 AM

    NO. I LIKE THE SCHEDULE WE HAVE NOW! IF THEY CHANGE THE SCHEDULE I WON’T GO TO SCHOOL ANYMORE. 🙂

    Reply