Clarke County High School staff presented the school’s scheduling review to the Clarke County School Board on Tuesday, describing trade-offs among multiple models and reporting staff survey results that favored the current eight-period day.

Dana Waring, principal at Clarke County High School, introduced administrators and counselors and summarized student demographics and program offerings that complicate schedule changes, including dual-enrollment partnerships with Blue Ridge Community College and Laurel Ridge Community College, an expanded apprenticeship/internship program and participation in Mount Vista Governor’s School. “We have to look at the needs of all students and not just one or two groups of students,” Waring told the board.

Waring and counselors outlined seven scheduling options discussed internally: a traditional six-period day (rare in Virginia), a seven-period day, a 4x4 semester block (90-minute periods), an alternating AB block (90-minute periods on alternating days), an eight-period day with 48-minute periods (the current model), a 7-day rotating model and several hybrid approaches that blend 90- and 45-minute periods.

Staff said the district switched to the eight-period, shorter-period model after the COVID-19 period to ensure students saw teachers daily. Nikki McGinley, lead school counselor, said the shorter periods helped students who need smaller chunks of instruction and improved daily teacher contact for students who struggled with attendance. McGinley said the eight-period model produced more daily contact with teachers and allowed “32 periods of high school to remediate if needed for graduation,” while short periods also aided students who need frequent, smaller learning increments.

Administrators flagged trade-offs for each model. The 4x4 block can allow in-depth work and a college-like cadence but impairs transfer students and complicates AP/IB exam timing. The alternating AB block offers longer lab time but can leave a student missing an entire week of instruction when absences line up with block days. Waring and assistant staff noted a hybrid that mixes two 90-minute block days with three shorter days would create logistical conflicts with off-campus programs such as the Hanley High School EMT/firefighting partnership and dual-enrollment schedules at Blue Ridge and Laurel Ridge.

Shane Coleman, work-based learning coordinator, illustrated scheduling conflicts with real student examples: in some career-technical and governor-school placements students spend morning hours at a partner campus and return to the high school for afternoon coursework; certain block schedules would make those partnerships impossible without changing partner calendars.

Staff also presented survey results of high-school personnel: 77.6% of staff said they preferred to keep the current eight-period day; a smaller share preferred alternative models such as a 7-period day or block hybrids. Waring said staff would accept further consultation: the principal asked the board for time to reconvene faculty and present a narrower set of options and a refined staff survey before the board votes.

Board members questioned how schedule changes would affect class sizes, special education and RTI supports and the number of course “preps” teachers carry. Staff provided class-balance estimates, noting that a seven-period day would likely increase class sizes and reduce elective opportunities for students in some programs; special-education and RTI students could lose access to smaller, focused support classes under some models.

The board did not change the district schedule at the meeting. Several trustees asked staff to re-run a shorter survey focused on two or three viable options and to return next month with a recommendation that accounts for program partnerships, impacts on transfer students, special-education services and teacher workload.

Trustees said they want a timely decision so program and course registration planning can proceed for the next school year.