Knights

Rationale for Schedule Change

There are several reasons that the schedule committee has decided to consider changing the current schedule.

Enrichment Period was not working for many teachers and students.: Many teachers and students did not feel that the Enrichment period was working well for the students. While some classrooms were quiet, few students were contributing to their education during that time.
Students only in need of remediation were using the time effectively.: Although the initial time set aside for Enrichment was to engage all students and give them extra time to study, have remediation, or expand their education, as the period evolved only students receiving remediation were being addressed.

Work Time: As departments begin to implement GPS and work on developing Professional Learning Communities, it is important to give teachers more contract time to plan and perform the many administrative functions. The new schedule will allow for teachers to have that time.
Common Planning: One of the major goals is to give teachers more time together to plan. We are looking at the schedule to see if we can have departments eat together, but we can not guarantee that for anyone yet. But having time to work with a few, or even one other colleague can be a huge benefit to our teachers.

Meeting the needs of middle 80%: As we look at our school community, we have acknowledged that we can do more to meet all of our students needs. Currently we perform well at meeting the needs of our top and bottom 10%, but we are left with a large part of our student body that does not have the opportunity to receive that attention.
Student buy in: With the implementation of Georgia's new graduation requirements, many students will lose the opportunity to explore areas of interest in their elective classes. We would like to give students an opportunity to have a say in what they learn.