Four years after switching to the nine block a day schedule, Mansfield ISD Superintendent Dr. Jim Vaszauskas made the decision to revert back to the A/B block schedule. Dr. Vaszauskas said the change will benefit high school students by offering better college preparatory options.
“If we get right down to the mission and vision of our district, our goal pre-K through high school is to graduate college and career ready students,” Dr. Vaszauskas said. “We want our students that want to go to work to go right into a field with a certification.”
The initial change to the nine block schedule was prompted by a 2011 legislation that cut statewide education funding by $5.4 billion dollars, equating to $26 million out of MISD’s budget over a two year span.
To reduce spending, the district reduced teacher planning periods with the nine block schedule so teachers could teach more classes per day. Rather than teaching six out of 10 classes every two days, teachers began teaching seven out of nine blocks every day. This allowed MISD to save 75 teaching positions. The budget change forced Dr. Vaszauskas into making a tough decision.
“We would have never gone off the block had we not been forced to financially,” Dr. Vaszauskas said.
MISD had been using the block schedule for 19 years before making the switch to the nine period schedule in the 2012-13 school year. Four years later the district’s financial situation has improved to the point that Dr. Vaszauskas is comfortable with returning to the block schedule. Dr. Vaszauskas anticipates it being a win-win situation for students and teachers.
“From a student’s perspective, just the load of seeing that many teachers a day can put mental stress on students,” Dr. Vaszauskas said. “For teachers it’s hard to prepare, reach out and connect to 200 students in a day.”
Legacy alumnus Michelle Heath supports the move back to A/B blocks. Heath used the block schedule prior to graduating in 2010.
“It’s more realistic to the real world, you’re not going to sit down and do anything for 45 minutes,” Heath said. “A realistic work day is 8 hours.”
School will still start at 7:25 a.m. and end at 2:55 p.m. How electives work with the new schedule remains a topic of debate at their meetings. Athletic classes will be available to double block however it will reduce the number of other electives a student may take per semester. Double blocking athletics also reduces the number of classes that coaches can teach, which concerns Principal Dr. Shelly Butler.
“A lot of our best teachers are coaches, like Coach Keel,” Dr. Butler said. “But if he is double blocked in athletics then it takes his AP US History kids away from us. We then have to decide if we need extra personnel.”
Additionally, lunches will be changed from the nine block schedule. Lunch will be around the 3rd or 7th block of the day. Students will be released at varied times to the lunchroom and depending on which part of 3rd block they leave, may have to come back to their class. The change will be an adjustment to the class of 2017, who have had the nine block schedule for the duration of their high school careers and have always had a specific block for lunch. Simply walking out of class to go to lunch will be odd to junior Jacob Rowland.
“It’s going to be weird, you can’t just walk out of a class,” Rowland said. “I’m just going to finish all my work and then head to lunch, that’s like my job.”
Dr. Butler hopes the transition to the A/B block schedule goes smoothly and urges students to stay focused on their education rather than the schedule.
“We can do whatever is thrown at us. We will take advantage of it and move forward,” Dr. Butler said. “I want the students continue to take care of business, don’t relax. You have to stay focused and plugged in to your instruction.”
Cheyenne • Jan 15, 2016 at 2:56 pm
I’m glad that they are going back to this. I had two years of block and two years of 9 classes. The block schedule defently works better for the students to be able to really understand the material the teachers are providing the students with.