Board considers hybrid schedule

Local school leaders heard once again Thursday night from students and community members concerned about proposed changes to the city's high school schedule.

Members of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education discussed a new alternative to the hybrid block schedule proposed by Superintendent Neil Pedersen.

The proposed alternative - called a hybrid seven-period day - would change the school day to consist of seven 50-minute periods.

The most controversial scheduling option would change the school day to include four 90-minute courses each semester with an option to split at least one of the 90-minute periods into two 45-minute courses.

Students at Chapel Hill and East Chapel Hill high schools now have six yearlong classes that last 55 minutes each.

"I think it is viable," Pedersen said of the new alternative to the controversial block scheduling proposal.

Many of the students who spoke at the meeting said they were in favor of the new seventh period option.

"The closer (the proposal) gets to what we have now, the more helpful the schedule will be," said Tamar Ariel, a junior at Chapel Hill High School.

Josh Abram, a junior at East Chapel Hill High, told school board members that his school's student government endorses the addition of an extra period.

"We feel the block scheduling will be disruptive," he said.

The discussion at Thursday's meeting centered mostly on the seven-period hybrid option.

In a memo to board members, Pedersen discussed the advantages and disadvantages of the new alternative.

He said the change would address the needs of students, reduce student stress and allow for more course offerings.

But, the memo says, a seven-period hybrid would increase the average class size by about 3.5 students.

"I think that is quite a bit," Pedersen said.

He also said the class size would not increase as much under the four-period block plan.

Board members also saw sample schedules for students under the current schedule, the seven-period hybrid and the four-period block schedules.

Sherri Martin, the school system's director of secondary education programming, showed members slides that compared the three options.

But many of the students present expressed concern about whether the projections were representative of most students.

"(Martin) should have spent more time on how it could be problematic or beneficial for 90 percent of the students," Ariel said.

But Alena Steen, a junior at Chapel Hill High, said she thought the school board was moving in the right direction.

"Pedersen is starting to see how much unrest there is (about the topic)," she said.

School board members agreed to give the proposal more consideration at their next meeting Dec. 2.

But Pedersen told the school board that he is ready to make a decision.

"High school reform is not about changing the high school schedule," he said. "I think there are far more important issues."

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.