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High school leaders outline new block schedule and "mission control" supports
Summary
At the Spring Grove Area SD board meeting, Mr. Earhart reported a shift to a building-wide block schedule, expanded Lighthouse-team leadership work, and a "mission control" system to increase teacher touchpoints for remediation, enrichment and advisory; progress will be measured with PLTs and MRA data.
Mr. Earhart gave the high school update to the board, saying the district is continuing a Lighthouse-team approach to set building goals and culture and has moved to a building-wide block schedule for the coming year. He said the district is "continuing to use that structure to break down barriers in all 3 aspects of the building" and is extending the framework to students themselves.
Earhart described "mission control" as the biggest win for the year, explaining it "drastically increases the amount of touch points that teachers have with kids, both with remediation [and] enrichment, also with clubs, advisory periods" and allows more tiered supports so "kids getting what they need when they need it." He said teachers have begun using heterogeneous advisory groups so upperclassmen can lead younger students and expose them to opportunities across the high school.
A board member asked how block scheduling would affect the number and variety of electives. Earhart responded that the annual credit totals remain the same but the schedule compresses daily minutes into longer blocks, allowing some half-credit sequences (for example, Engineering 1 and 2) to be combined into a single full-credit class to deepen content. He said the district will monitor implementation and reassess in a follow-up report in February, relying on PLTs and MRA data to determine necessary changes.
The presentation emphasized implementation and monitoring rather than final decisions: Earhart said faculty meetings and professional learning teams will continue to refine the approach, and the district will "circle back" and make tweaks as needed based on data and teacher feedback.
