Marple Newtown proposes Paxton Hollow schedule overhaul, shifts professional development into August

Dr. T.J. Gretchen, a Paxton Hollow administrator, presented a proposed overhaul of Paxton Hollow Middle School’s daily schedule and the Marple Newtown School District 2025–26 academic calendar during the Jan. 14 school board meeting.

The proposal would start the 2025–26 school year after Labor Day, move three professional‑development (PD) days from June into August, and restructure middle‑school time to add intervention and seminar periods for sixth through eighth grades. "Time is our greatest asset," Dr. Gretchen said, explaining the district wants to front‑load PD so teachers can apply training throughout the year.

The nut graf — why it matters: district staff say the changes aim to increase students' instructional minutes, create built‑in intervention windows for reading and math, reduce class sizes by adding sections, and provide a 6th‑grade seminar to support students’ transition to middle school. Administrators said these changes can be implemented without adding staff or budgeted costs.

Under the plan, PD in August would increase to seven days (four days historically offered to new teachers plus three moved from June). The schedule redesign also proposes an "academic flex" period run by guidance staff to pull students for targeted supports, additional co‑taught sections to support struggling learners, and an option for world‑language introduction earlier in middle school curricula to better inform student choices.

Dr. Gretchen described a multi‑year, collaborative process that included surveys of Paxton Hollow staff, focus groups, and meetings with district teaching‑and‑learning leaders and high‑school staff to align expectations. She said the schedule was built in the district’s scheduling sandbox and that the draft runs, though it still requires coordination with curriculum supervisors for course sequencing and minor staffing adjustments: "It's already built, and I'm just continuing to tweak it," she said.

Board members asked how the change would affect students aiming for advanced language tracks in high school. Mr. Troy Ciano, a school board member, asked whether the adjustment would limit a student's ability to reach the highest levels of world language coursework in high school. Dr. Gretchen said it would not: Lisa Kelly from Teaching and Learning had consulted with the high school world‑language department and confirmed students could still progress to AP courses, though some students might need to "double up" in a block schedule. She said 16 students were currently enrolled in the course that had once been a prerequisite for AP, a number she described as small.

Administrators said the redesign preserves contractually required staff days (the district targets 182 student days and 193 staff days) and does not change prep or lunch entitlements. Dr. Gretchen acknowledged the biggest hurdle will be changing long‑standing meeting practices: teams that historically met multiple times per week would have fewer, more focused meetings. "We're not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We're still going to have team meetings. It's going to look different," she said.

Board members voiced general support during the presentation. Dr. Gretchen asked the board to approve the proposed schedule so she could begin one‑on‑one conversations with staff, update principals across the district, and inform families at transition events. She described plans for a curriculum night and continued work in the scheduling sandbox ahead of implementation.

If the board approves the proposal at a subsequent meeting, administrators said they will notify affected staff, continue coordination with curriculum supervisors, and finalize schedules in Infinite Campus.

The presentation included multiple references to prior and current district leaders involved in the work, including Dr. DeBartolomeo and Dr. Fagan, and named staff who contributed to interventions and curriculum planning.