By Michael Belmont
Gargoyle staff reporter
Posted Monday, May 8, 2006, The OG, news

During a brief faculty meeting on Friday, Uni teachers and administrators discussed a possible new schedule for shortened school days next year.

Under the current schedule, classes begin at 8 a.m. and conclude at 2 p.m. on days when teachers have a faculty meeting. Under the proposed changes, faculty meetings would begin at 8 a.m., followed by classes from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

At Friday's meeting, which was held after a teacher appreciation luncheon given by parent volunteers, faculty members examined the pros and cons of the current protocol against those of the proposed schedule.

Among the concerns with keeping the status quo were the possibility of students misbehaving on campus between 2 and 4, the disruption of family pick-up schedules in the afternoon, and a sizable time gap between school and extracurricular activities.

The benefits of the current system included a normal drop-off schedule in the morning, a chance for students to socialize after school, and a truncated period of time over which the school is responsible for students.

Meanwhile, the pros of the 10-to-4 day were easier pick-up in the afternoon, no disruptive gap between the end of classes and the beginning of extracurricular activities, and better conformity to natural teen sleep cycles.

The cons included disruption of normal morning drop-off arrangements, a longer period of time over which students would have to be supervised (since some students would arrive before 10 a.m.), and possible teacher burnout.

The faculty will vote Friday on three possible courses of action for next year:

• Continue the current policy.
• Establish a trial year in which all faculty meeting days would follow the 10-4 schedule.
• Establish a trial year in which half the meeting days would follow the 10-4 schedule and half would continue with the 8-2 schedule.

The proposed schedule changes will be brought up for discussion at Tuesday's meeting of the Student-Faculty Advisory Committee (Room 312 during lunch) and at Thursday's meeting of Student Council (Room 109 during lunch). Students will have the opportunity to voice their opinions at these meetings before the faculty votes on Friday.

Director/Principal Kassie Patton said that student input may have a qualitative effect on the final decision of the faculty.

“The teachers are the ones who are going to vote, but it's important for teachers know what the students think, and what their rationale is,” she commented.

The issue of changing the early dismissal schedule was originally brought up during the April faculty meeting because of concern over unsupervised student activity on campus between 2 and 4 on meeting days.

Fine arts department head Rick Murphy, who suggested that faculty meetings be held before school instead of after, pointed to extracurriculars as his main reason for doing so.

“Right now, whenever we have shortened days, all the kids involved in [after-school activities] have nothing to do for two hours,” he said.

[Note: An earlier version of this story was posted on Saturday, May 6. The updated version includes comments from Kassie Patton and Rick Murphy.]