By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



Teachers and students are in for yet another change next year.

During a Jefferson County Board of Education Board Advisory Committee meeting Tuesday, three teachers, represented by the American Federation of Teachers, and a parent expressed their unhappiness about a schedule change for next school year.

Mortimer Jordan High School teacher Chris King and PTA president Cindy Sanford were among those who voiced their displeasure about the change.

“The schedule we’re on … has been a total disaster,” said Sanford, who has a son in 10th grade. “For next year, I’m getting more negative feed.”

Chris King, who teaches sports medicine and health at Mortimer Jordan, said teachers and students are “constantly in a state of confusion,” especially students with learning or behavioral disorders.

“You take the consistency out of their lives … and they’ve got a problem,” King said.

The change for next year will eliminate the alternating block schedule that the BOE adopted for the 2008-09 school year.

The schedule has reportedly caused a flood of complaints from parents and teachers.

Jefferson County Schools superintendent Dr. Phil Hammonds sent out a survey in December “because there were so many complaints about this alternating block schedule,” according to Nez Calhoun, director of public information for the school system.

The results of the survey are not available because it was given strictly for administrative purposes, according to Calhoun. However, Hammonds said Tuesday the survey resulted in “no clear consensus” among teachers.

The alternating block schedule replaced the former block schedule, where students took four courses one semester and four different courses the second semester.

The major complaint was that some students went several months without taking core classes like math or English. Also, some students took the ACT exam when they had not taken a math or English course for several months.

With the current alternating block, students take the same eight classes throughout the entire school year: Four classes on Mondays and Thursdays, which are A days, and four different classes on Tuesdays and Fridays, which are B days.

Wednesdays alternate between A and B days.

Teachers and students will face yet another change when school starts back in August.

The new schedule calls for a “skinny” day on Mondays, where students will take all eight classes in 46-minute periods.

Tuesdays and Thursdays will be A days, and Wednesdays and Fridays will be B days. Classes on those days will be 96 minutes each.

“I can see why there’s controversy over it,” said Calhoun. “I can understand the frustration of teachers.”

She added, however, that the new schedule has two main benefits.

First, students would still have all eight classes throughout the entire school year rather than having four each semester.

Second, school holidays fall on Mondays, which means students will miss all eight classes. With the current system, students were always missing A block classes, which meant for an imbalanced schedule.

It is not yet known how the alternating block schedule affected grades. According to Calhoun, figures for this year’s testing will not be available from the state until August.