NHCS has announced they will no longer follow the current block schedule for middle school students. Students will now have 6 classes every day. This means students will have 5+ hours of zoom meetings for their remote learning days.

As parents, we are concerned about the increased screen time per day and worry about the stress this will put on students and teachers.

 
As mandated by the district office, the new 6 class schedule will eliminate planning periods for teachers. Teachers will have just 50 minutes per class to teach both in-person students and remote students at the same time. It will be extremely difficult for teachers to teach our children effectively in this short amount of time.

Our children will not have sufficient access to their teachers via remote learning. Our children will not be able to ask questions easily in real-time or seek help on assignments during class time. Teachers will need to divert attention to those who are in the classroom while rushing through content within the 45-50 minute class time. 

Synchronous learning for electives such as band, orchestra, and chorus are not guaranteed!

There are serious safety concerns with 100’s of students transitioning classes 6 times a day, as our children will not be able to properly social distance in school halls. Teachers also will not be able to monitor hallways and clean their classrooms at the same time.

We are requesting the district to continue with our current block schedule as follows:
Cores 1 and 2, and Elective 1 on Monday/Thursday
Cores 3 and 4, and Elective 2 on Tuesday/Friday
Wednesdays will continue with asynchronous learning, SEL meetings, and the continuation of other specific educational services, such as EC, ESL, and AIG.

Continuing block scheduling would provide consistency as we transition to Plan B. Teachers will have more time to meet our children’s educational needs because they will have sufficient time to teach, answer student questions, and assist with assignments. Students will receive the high quality, equitable education they deserve under the block schedule!

Please sign this petition to support continuing the block schedule under Plan B. Our children and teachers deserve consistency while providing a safe, equitable, and high-quality education for all!

Continuing block scheduling would: 

- Require only three zoom meetings daily, and reduce hours students must be on zoom.
- Provide consistency for students and teachers as we transition to Plan B
- Provide equitable access to course curriculum for all students
- Provide planning periods for teachers.
- Increase class time to allow teachers to provide equitable support to both in person and remote students
- Allow teachers to teach deeper level content to both student groups
- Allow adequate class time for our children to receive live instruction, ask questions and obtain help with class assignments.
- Allow synchronous, live instruction for elective classes such as band, chorus and orchestra. 
- Reduce class transitions by half, which will increase safety for all students and teachers.
- Reduce the time teachers must spend cleaning their classrooms between classes, reducing chemical exposure for all students and staff. 

A 6 class schedule will:

- Double daily zoom meetings from 3 to 6 each day
- Increase zoom meetings to over 5 hours a day
- Eliminate equitable access to course curriculum for remote students
- Eliminate planning periods for teachers
- Prevent teachers from providing adequate attention to remote students
- Reduce our children’s daily access to teachers during class time to ask questions and seek help on class assignments
- Eliminate synchronous, live instruction for some elective classes such as chorus, band and orchestra. 
- Create unnecessary class transitions daily, with 100’s of students in the hall at least 6 times a day.
- Require teachers to clean desks a minimum of 6 times a day between class transitions