4 x 4 schedule doesn't run well

On Tues. February 24 I attended the faculty meeting that discussed whether to have next year's schedule be a four by four schedule like Chavez. A four by four schedule allows students to take four classes each semester in hopes of allowing students more chances to earn credits by having more electives.

Teachers did have some concerns involving this schedule so the administrators did a presentation answering the questions. In this schedule students would take some of their core classes like math and English classes in the first semester. Teachers were concerned a seven month break, that includes the second semester, would allow students to forget material.  The administrators replied by saying students would forget material anyway during the summer, but have prepared to have a intensive review week before spring testing.

 And though that may let some students have less stress, how will that affect college bound students? What if instead of taking another elective they wanted to take another math class to get prepared for college? 

Students will however get enough room in schedules to stay in music programs for the whole year without having the course compete with AVID or AP courses.

The students pros of the schedule are that it will allow more students time to meet with teachers if they are struggling or want to discuss something with the teacher. It has also proven to have improved graduation rates. But how can students not graduate with this schedule if  they are give around eight more elective classes?

The teacher pros are that the schedule allows a built in 18 hour staff development, less students, and a longer prep period consisting of 93 minutes.

School hours would begin at 7:16 and end at 2:13 and students will also have a minimum day every week.

Other proposals were to keep the same schedule or have bank minutes for minimum days. Bank minutes adds four minutes to each class in order to have a minimum day every week.

At the faculty meeting nothing was resolved because teachers were afraid to commit to a schedule that still contained problems. Students should voice their opinions on how to wok out problems in this potential future considering it's the students future that is affected the most.