Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the School Scheduling topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Elkhorn Area School District weighs schedule overhaul for middle and high schools
Summary
Board heard multi-model presentations on middle- and high-school schedules, with staff favoring a five-period high-school day for deeper instruction while flagging tradeoffs for middle-school teaming, allied arts access and staffing; no final decision was taken.
Speaker 2 presented three scheduling models and the instructional tradeoffs the Elkhorn Area School District is weighing for the middle and high schools. The options described were a seven-period day with a flexible period, a six-period junior-high model and a five-period model with longer class blocks. "We want all students to reach for a noble proficiency in reading," Speaker 2 said while describing how changes would shift instructional minutes and team structures.
The presentation emphasized teaming and collaborative planning at the middle school and warned that some models would fragment team meetings and reduce common planning time. Staff noted allied-arts access (band, choir, art) would be preserved best under the five-period option at the high-school level but could be harder to sustain at the middle school if positions are shifted by attrition. Speakers cited comparisons of instructional minutes against peer districts and identified roughly 600 fewer minutes for some subjects under certain models.
High-school presenters argued the five-period (trimester/block) model produced deeper instruction, fewer transitions and decreased behavioral referrals. "You will see a significant decline in behavioral referrals and increase in attendance," Speaker 5 said, describing local experience with trimesters and attendance gains. The board heard detailed master-schedule mechanics: student course-request caps, lab-class maximums (example: 20‑student cap in consumer auto), tradeoffs when single‑offering (singleton) classes conflict with students' preferred hours, and how staff vacancies generate ripple effects that require overloads or raising class sizes.
No formal vote was taken. Board members asked staff to return with refined minutes calculations, targeted staffing scenarios tied to attrition and options that preserve allied-arts access and intervention time. The board will continue schedule deliberations as part of the June budget process.
