Northern Lebanon SD to rework scheduling and adopt new data system to ease course access

The Northern Lebanon School District board on June 3 heard that administrators plan to "wipe the schedule out" and rebuild scheduling processes to improve student access to courses, better align AP and dual-enrollment options and support staff curriculum work.

Superintendent Dr. Gary Messinger told the board teachers are writing new curriculum templates in English and foreign language and the district will enter "stage 2" of McGrath training, which will bring more staff into the process. He said the district will support teachers' summer work on curriculum.

Messinger said scheduling challenges include low-enrollment classes, AP courses competing for limited periods and growth in dual-enrollment arrangements. "We have 11 AP courses, and we don't have that many periods," he said. He cited examples of classes with single-digit enrollment and noted some AP history classes had only one request.

To address that, Messinger said administrators led by Dr. Ebert will erase the existing schedule and try a blank-slate approach to plan student course sequences over four years: "We're going to wipe the schedule out the way Northern Lebanon has always done it, and we're going to start with a blank slate," he said. He added the district will need to educate students about options — including AP, dual enrollment and which courses best meet their postsecondary goals.

The board also heard the district will phase in a modern data warehouse to replace an antiquated system so staff can pull and analyze data more easily. Messinger said the new system should make report generation simpler for teachers who do not use the old system daily.

Board members expressed support for avoiding discouraging high-achieving students and asked for continued updates as administrators work through the multifaceted scheduling changes.