Similar schedules, separate campuses

The city’s two high schools will feature a more homogenized scheduling system next fall, as Charles Hays moves to adopt the semester system found in the majority of the province.

The change will mirror the system and Prince Rupert Senior Secondary and will enable both schools to share instructors, standardize timetables and possibly even share in college instruction resources on a more frequent basis.

The debate over a changeover has been ongoing for a few years now, with Hays using a quarterly system which was significantly different than that being used at PRSS.

The changeover will require some restructuring of the Hays system and extra funds have been set aside to assist in the transition.

The Daily News explained much of the background on the issue and many of the planned changes in its Friday edition.


SCHOOLS ARE SET TO SHARE AS SCHEDULE CHANGES
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Friday, December 15, 2006
Page one

Come next September, the city’s two high schools will operate on the same schedule.
“Both high schools will be on a semestered year,” said Bill Ford, director of instruction, school district 52. “Charles Hays will be giving up the quarterly system and moving to the more or less standard timetable that’s being run around the province.”

In the next school year, Hays will operate as PRSS now does, using a two-semester system with four blocks per day. The move will allow for sharing of teachers between the two high schools and, in some cases, between the elementary schools and high schools.

“The blocks won’t rotate, they’ll be static (and) that’s to accommodate things like the band schedule, work experience programs ... part-time students,” said Ford. “Lunch breaks will be 40 minutes long. The bell schedules will be identical ... for the sharing of students. This is about student choice.”

The issue has been a matter of debate for a number of years, however after a series of meetings and consultations that took place at both high schools this year, they came up with the agreement. As part of the terms, funds have also been put in place to allow teachers at Hays to retool their courses.

“This is a significant change in terms of (Hays’) current timetable,” he said. “Currently, their courses are modularized and they’re going to have to collapse that. Periods are going to be a little longer ... they’ll have some release time to work on that.”

While it’s not quite a move to a ‘one school, two campuses’ philosophy, it may be a step in that direction.

“There’s a culture currently in our district where the sharing of students between the schools has been minimal,” he said. “We know it’s going to take some time to build that connection between the two schools so that students are comfortable going back and forth.”

Beyond that comfort zone, students may also have the opportunity for advanced placement at Northwest Community College thanks to the schedule shift.

“They were very interested that our two high schools were going to a common schedule because they would like to be able to plan for our students to take part in college level courses,” said Brian Kangas, superintendent of schools. “If they know what our schedule is like, they can build their timetables to help support our kids.”

The schools are also discussing a possible change to the morning start time. Currently, the 8:30 a.m. start time is causing difficulty for young students from Metlakatla. The kindergarten kids are finding the early hours difficult and a later start time may improve things.