FAQs about the 8 period Block

1. How does the schedule work?

   It’s very simple: The schedule is a 4 x 4 block, which means there are 4 block periods one day, then 4 the next. Classes will be 90 minutes long. The schedule simply alternates each day, with periods 1,3,5,7 one day and 2,4,6,8 the next. Any exceptions (minimum days, finals, etc.) will be posted on the website and communicated directly to parents as they have been in the past.

2. Will there be still be a late start day?

   Yes…and it will now be every Wednesday where school will begin at 8:50am. Teachers will use this day for collaboration. Wednesday late starts do not affect the schedule rotation.

3. Will there be a traditional schedule as before on late start days?

   No.

4. Will we still have an SSR?

   No.

5. How many classes will students be allowed to take under the new schedule?

   All 9th, 10th and 11th graders must be enrolled in 6 classes minimum to include periods 3-6. Seniors must be enrolled in a minimum of 5 classes in the Fall and Spring semesters.

   Students will be limited to 6 classes with the exception of a 7th and/or 8th class that must be an Open Enrollment class. Open enrollment classes may include ASB, Journalism, Band, and so forth. For complete details on Open Enrollment courses, please see the related link. One of the big advantages of this new schedule is it allows students more flexibility to take open enrollment classes while still taking their core classes as well, resulting in less conflicts.

6. Is it possible my student will have a later start or an earlier release under this new schedule and if so, what arrangements do I make?

   Yes it’s possible some students will start later and leave earlier under this schedule. In the case of freshmen and sophomores who fall into this category, we have structured a place for them to report to and where they will have a place to study and receive tutoring if desired. This is our new Academic Support Center.

7. How will this schedule affect staffing?

   It doesn’t. Our staffing is based on our projected student enrollment and does not change whether we have a 6 period or 8 period block.

8. How does this schedule benefit Student-Athletes?

   All athletes will be done with academic classes by 1:30pm each day (1:40pm on Wednesday). This will help eliminate most of the issues we faced under the previous schedule where athletes missed a lot of instructional time on “A” days for early release. Under this new schedule, student-athletes won’t miss nearly as much instructional time.

9. Will the school now be able to offer more elective courses?

   Yes, that is one of the main points of having such a schedule.

• Student Choices:

  Scheduling conflicts are significantly reduced with more student choices for classes and fewer conflicts encountered. Students who want to take specialty courses such as Journalism, Yearbook, ASB, AVID, or Athletics can now do so more easily without having to make a tough choice.

• SLCs Now Easier to Schedule:

  The expansion of sections affords more flexibility to schedule our Smaller Learning Communities (AVID, Da Vinci, Franklin, Magellan, and Rembrandt). Students take common core classes together, which helps teachers monitor student progress and integrate curriculum.

• Increased Teacher Collaboration Time:

  Late start day is now on Wednesday, allowing teachers to have 1 hour weekly collaboration meetings centered on student achievement and curriculum development. This improves upon our current collaboration time and adds to the many PLC (Professional Learning Community) opportunities we have structured for our teacher teams.

• Athletes:

  Advantages to our student-athletes are numerous. Here are two:

  • Less Instructional Time Missed: A student-athlete has both 7th and 8th period for athletics on this schedule, resulting in significantly less instructional time missed for student-athletes compared to our current schedule.
  • Consistent Practice Time: Practices begin at a consistent time of 1:30pm (1:45pm on late-start Wednesdays).

• More Elective Courses:

  There are now more possibilities to offer new elective courses to expand on our curriculum.

• Student Course Loads:

  Parameters will be set on student course selections since we cannot support unlimited course selection (only so much staffing to go around) and obviously do not want to have students graduating too early. Students will be held to a predetermined number of courses, but will be allowed to take additional courses called Open Enrollment courses. These are courses such as Athletics, ASB, AVID, Band, Color Guard, Dance Production, Drama, Pep Squad, and Yearbook. (For a more complete list, please go to our website.) Students will also be held to a minimum number of courses at NHHS for their 4 years as they have been previously.

• Instructional Contact Time:

  We will lose contact time per class under this schedule, but our cumulative instructional time increases. Under the current block schedule, a block period was 110 minutes long. Many teachers felt this was simply too much time for most students to stay focused. Under the new schedule, the block period will be 90 minutes.

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