FHSTheFlash The Flash Volume 54, Issue 2 January 2014 | Page 3

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3
Bye Block Scheduling

January 2014, Volume 54, Issue 2

Erica Kloski

Flash Staff Reporter

From the appearance of
the school, to the rollout of
iPads, and now a transition
into a new schedule, a lot of
changes have been made in
the past few years at Fraser
High School. On the night of
November 11th, the Fraser
Board of Education passed
the schedule proposal for
the upcoming school year of
2014-2015.
“It was exciting to hear
about the passed schedule,”
Regina Cable, the head of the
media center, said.
The Board of education
approved the modified block
schedule as the committee
recommended it. There was
a committee of teachers,
administrators, parents,
and students who worked
since May to come up with a
schedule that everyone could
live with. Being the president
of the Fraser Education
Association, Cable was asked
to select, in addition to
herself, six other members
who were teachers. The
administration then chose
seven other members for the
committee.
“I feel that the change is
a great compromise. We
looked at several schedules
and the schedules that could
have been implemented
would have been vastly
different than what we have
done in the last fifteen years
at Fraser,” Cable said. “Block
scheduling has become a
part of the culture of the
Fraser community. That
aspect was very important to
the parents, important to the
students, and very important

to the board as well.  They
wanted to have something
that everyone could live
with.”
According to Dr. Michael
Lonze, the principal of
Fraser High School, there
were a couple of reasons
for the change. One of the
reasons was to look at the
effectiveness of the block
schedule academically. A
lot of research
has been done
regarding
block
scheduling
and it has
revealed that
the schedule
isn’t the most
effective
to have
academically.
With the
changes made
for next year,
the school
now has a
comparison
point between
a class that
meets every
day and a class
that meets
every other
day to see
how it affects the academic
success of its students. The
committee put in charge
of creating a new schedule
looked at several schedules,
wanting to find the best fit
possible. Many months of
preparation and discussion
led up to the newly approved
schedule.
“What had been proposed
to the Board of Education
was that we have a first
period day that meets every
day for forty-five minutes.

Then following that is a fiftyminute seminar that meets
every day,” Dr. Lonze said.
“Then, after that, we fall
back to our typical blocked
schedule where we will
have three ninety-minute
class periods; roughly the
same amount of classes we
have right now, just a little
different setup.”
One concern that parents

brought up was the change
in credits and whether or
not the students would still
have the opportunity to
experience as many classes
as they do now. However,
there will be no change in
credits. This year, students
have seven credits, plus
seminar, which will remain
the same with next year’s
changes.
“I believe that the change
isn’t as drastic as it was first
thought to be,” Cable said.

While students are
apprehensive about the new
change, one thing students
seem excited about is
having a seminar class every
day. Seminar is a time for
students to meet with their
teachers, study for classes,
do homework, as well as
catch up on any work from
being absent. The prospect
of having seminar each day
will give
students
a reliable
time set
aside from
their busy
schedule to
get those
things
done.
“I am
really
encouraged
by having
a seminar
every day.
Seminar
will move
away from
being an
event,
something
that you
Busy students in the hall.
Credit: Erica Kloski have twice
or three
times a week, to something
you have every day. You can
count on having those fifty
minutes. It becomes part of
the routine with what we do
and I really think that it will
change the focus of seminar
in a more positive direction,”
Cable said.
The prospect of having
seminar each day has come
with a lot of questions.
“The piece that hasn’t
been decided yet is how
exactly seminar will work.

We currently do not know
if the students will have the
same seminar teacher each
day. We have a committee,
Steering, that was a part of
how we did business over
the last ten years and we
kind of moved away from it,
but we’re bringing it back,”
Cable said. “Those are the
decisions that’ll be made
in Steering. They’ll decide
what seminar is going to
look like, how the time will
be structured, if a strict
structuring at all, or if it’ll
be made into an advisory
period. Those are all things
that’ll be decided at a later
time.”
Students have a lot to look
forward to in the upcoming
school year. The new
schedule isn’t too drastic
of a change for students
already in high school, but it
also helps transition middle
school students into the life
of high school. Whether or
not the schedule will be a
permanent change will be
decided along the way.
“I think the change in the
schedule is a nice step. I
think it’s a great way, again,
to get some good data to see
if we’re being most effective
in the time that we have
and how we’re using it,” Dr.
Lonze said. “I think at the
same time it might not be
the schedule we live with
for the next thirty years. We
might find out some great
things and see where we’re
going to go in the future
through it. I think we want
to continue to evaluate
change based on the need
of our students and their
academic needs.”