By Matt Wiley
Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) is a big building, but it’s not big enough for its student body. As a result, despite adding extra time to school days this year, school officials are considering a considerably different class schedule for next school year to help regulate the number of students on campus at one time.
To help ease congestion in its busy hallways, the Pasco County School Board recently approved the WRH administration’s proposal for adding six extra minutes to its school day. The extra time will allow one minute more between class periods for its more than 2,300 students to get to class on time. The new, extended day was approved at the October 7 Pasco County School Board meeting and went into effect on October 21, the first day of the second quarter of classes.
“(WRH) was built to accommodate about 1,600 students,” says WRH assistant principal for curriculum Shauntte Butcher. “With nearly 2,400 students, you’re going to have bottlenecks in the hallways.”
However, next year’s plan is a much more drastic time change. In fact, the school day will begin at 7:30 a.m. and end at 4:40 p.m. and consist of 10 class periods. But, students only would attend seven periods. The difference is in the schedule for each grade.
Butcher says that next school year, students in grades 10-12 would come in at 7:30 a.m. and leave at 1:55 p.m., while the school day for freshmen would begin at 10:20 a.m. and end at 4:40 p.m. The schedule would remain in effect for two school years, until a new high school on Old Pasco Rd. in northern Wesley Chapel is scheduled to open in time for the beginning of the 2017-18 school year.
“We presented our options (for next school year) at the October 7 Board meeting and (the Board) said to continue to pursue this one,” Butcher says. “The 10-period day has been successful at other Pasco high schools, including Wesley Chapel High (WCH) and Land O’Lakes High (LOLH). We’re going to continue working with staff and parents until we have a concrete idea of how we’re going to handle our growth and then present it to the Board.”
Butcher explains that the WRH administration made the trek from the furthest portable on campus to the furthest classroom during peak student traffic. She says it took nearly six minutes, part of the reason for the additional six minutes that now have been added to this year’s school days.
“This year, we have 30 portable classrooms,” she says. “In the past, we’ve had (teachers in the portables) dismiss students a minute early. But, that’s not fair to the teachers or the students. Something needed to be done.”
Luckily, Butcher explains, WRH principal Robyn White was an assistant principal at WCH when the school had its 10-period day, as well as other staff members that worked there and at LOLH.
“That’s going to help us,” Butcher says. “We have the opportunity to take that model and improve upon it.”
As far as transportation and extra-curricular activities, the new schedule shouldn’t pose many problems for them, Butcher says.
Buses would simply make one extra run in the mornings and evenings after doing their normal scheduled runs and junior varsity sports would practice before class begins. Other school functions would have to make some adjustments. For example, the WRH band currently practices at 4:30 p.m. Butcher says that a request will be made to have practice begin a half-hour later at 5 p.m.
“We’re still in the beginning of these discussions,” Butcher says. “We’ve tried to hold off having to change to a 10-period day, but our growth has become too much to handle with the current schedule.”
No comment yet, add your voice below!