Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Cte Education topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Parents, students raise CTE concerns over new high-school schedule; board asks for discussion and website update
Summary
At open forum parents and a senior said the district's move toward 45-minute class periods could cut hands-on Career and Technical Education time; the board scheduled a discussion for March 10 and requested a website update explaining transit-time mitigation and scheduling effects.
Two members of the same Davenport family told the school board on Feb. 24 they believe a proposed move to multiple 45-minute class periods will reduce hands-on lab time in Career and Technical Education (CTE) classes and could force programs to be curtailed.
Robert E. Walt, who identified himself as the parent of two West High School students, said changes tied to a shift from block scheduling to shorter periods will reduce lab time and hamper CTE programs that depend on extended hands-on instruction. "Pre-req school classes that help get them into these vocational classes are gonna be cut down now from 55 minutes of actual lab time ... to actually 20 minutes of structured, hands on curriculum," Walt told the board.
Alex Ewalt, a senior at West High School, described similar concerns from a student perspective: with 45-minute periods, routine start-up and clean-up consume much of class time, leaving "about 20 minutes to work" for welding or auto lab tasks and making field trips and employer visits impractical.
Board members acknowledged the concerns and added two formal board requests to the agenda for follow-up. A board member submitted a request (listed in the record as submitted by Kent Poshin on Feb. 24, 2025) asking that the high-school class schedule and its effect on CTE be formally discussed; the board indicated the request will be considered at the next meeting, March 10, 2025. Separately, Director Lisonbee Beck submitted a request for an update on the new schedule to be posted on the district website, specifically describing how transit time between classes is being mitigated and how different tracks/classes will operate; the board recorded the request and asked for the update "ASAP."
Board members who spoke in later discussion thanked the public speakers for raising the issue. The board did not adopt any schedule change or policy at the Feb. 24 meeting; the items were recorded as board requests and placed for follow-up.
