Sunday, October 19, 2003
The glitch involves block periods and single periods.
SHARON, Pa. -- There's a problem with student scheduling at Sharon High School.
It isn't working for 70 percent of the students, said Patrick Hepinger, principal assisting-academics.
Sharon had block scheduling two years ago in which classes are scheduled for two periods in a row on any given day.
The district switched to a single-period scheduling system last year and went to a modified block system this year, but it isn't easy, Hepinger told the school board Wednesday.
Sharon High School has five time periods for scheduling classes: yearlong block, yearlong single periods, semester-long block, semester-long periods and quarter-long blocks, he said.
That's just too many to devise workable schedules for the classes that students are requesting, he said, noting that seven out of 10 students are unable to get the schedules they want.
Block courses can only be offered at specific times of the day and finding sufficient available time to fit in single period and even semester block classes into the eight-period days can be very difficult, he said.
Hepinger said he isn't ready to make any recommendation for change yet but did say Sharon should reduce the number of time scheduling options.
Donna DeBonis, superintendent, said looking at scheduling problems is a prelude to rearranging course schedules and perhaps increasing graduation requirements.