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Perkiomen Valley proposes new middle‑school schedule and full‑day kindergarten rollout

Perkiomen Valley School District Board of School Directors · April 2, 2024
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Summary

Administrators presented a proposed middle‑school schedule that adds a 30‑minute daily intervention/enrichment (INE) block, expands homeroom for morning meetings, and shortens advisory; the board also discussed full‑day kindergarten plans including furniture purchases, a parent night and staffing implications.

Perkiomen Valley administrators on April 2 presented a redesign of middle‑school scheduling intended to provide daily, targeted intervention and enrichment and to create time for morning meetings and character education.

The proposed schedule shortens core class periods from 52 to 48 minutes, expands homeroom to 10 minutes for daily morning meetings, and adds a 30‑minute INE (intervention and enrichment) period before lunch. Presenters said INE would be used for a mix of core interventions, small‑group instruction and character education; two of six INE rotations would focus on character education and four on core academics and targeted pull‑outs for students who need support.

"What we want to do is meet each individual student's needs where they're at and provide those levels and tiers of intervention," said a presenting administrator summarizing the schedule rationale. The presentation argued the change would reduce the number of times students are pulled from core instruction for interventions and would protect music and elective participation.

Administrators said the middle‑school plan draws on research about morning meetings and advisory structures and that a structured literacy audit and a Senate‑sponsored grant supported the addition of daily intervention time. The curriculum director also described an ongoing structured‑literacy grant and a six‑year curriculum review cycle that will inform resource selections in coming months.

The board also reviewed full‑day kindergarten plans following a March 7 visit to North Penn School District. Administrators described "titrated" scheduling that eases students into full‑day routines, use of responsive‑classroom practices, and communication plans (a PV full‑day kindergarten website and a May parent night). The business office had already ratified a $55,908.88 furniture purchase for full‑day kindergarten classrooms and administrators proposed $40,000 for supplies ($10,000 per elementary building) in the budget projection.

Board members asked how success will be measured; presenters said they will track implementation fidelity and plan to evaluate the schedule and student engagement after an initial period.

No formal vote occurred at the work session; the schedule and resource requests will appear on future agendas for board action.