Pioneer Faculty Votes on A New Bell Schedule
As school start times are pushed back statewide, staff elects to have two block days a week.
By Ethan Percival
As school start times are pushed back statewide, staff elects to have two block days a week.
By Ethan Percival
As the school year comes to a close, faculty voting to decide next year’s bell schedule at Pioneer has begun. After Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill No. 328 in October of 2019, all California high schools, including charter schools, must reform their bell schedule to start the day at no earlier than 8:30 a.m. by July 1, 2022.
Pioneer staff have voted on two proposed plans for next year’s bell schedule, with a majority vote of 75% deciding the chosen plan. The law excludes zero periods, which are optional courses held before regular classes. Since both plans included more class time than the current contract requires, teachers had to vote to approve the overage for each plan.
Under Proposal A, approved on May 14 in a 41-3 vote, the school day will look similar to last year’s bell schedule. Students will have regular 1-6 classes on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, with S and C Block period days on Wednesday and Thursday. School is set to start at 8:30 on all but Thursdays. That schedule is still pending final approval from the district.
Proposal B was similar to this year’s bell schedule with Blue, Silver, and Red days, with the all-classes Friday “Red” schedules shifting to Mondays.
Proposal B was the first one voted on, but failed to reach the 75% votes needed to be ratified, only receiving 61% of the eligible 44 votes in favor, which was announced on April 30.
Science teachers were supportive of Proposal B’s increased block periods as it provides more time which is needed for students to complete experiments in their classes.
“As a science teacher, the longer time allows for better use of time for developing and carrying out labs,” said Biology teacher Rob Zaccheo.
Chemistry teacher Laura Bald shared similar sentiments.
“I am more in favor of block periods than regular periods. As a lab science class, it is difficult or close to impossible to conduct experiments in class without block periods. I also teach AP Chemistry and those labs take a lot to set up and have the students in the experiments. In fact, some of those labs require multiple block periods to complete,” Bald said.
Both proposals included FLEX periods, which were missing from this year’s bell schedule. However, Proposal B included four FLEX periods, which caused debate among some faculty.
“Proposal B shortened FLEX periods so I would not be able to use them for exam makeups. I believe four flex periods is too many in the week with some students already goofing off all the time when we have two,” said history department chair Mike Burrell.
English department chair and Site Flexibility Agreement representative, Beth Stafford, had a different perspective.
“I preferred Proposal B. With that option, we had more FLEX periods to offer students support.”
Some students like the block schedules better as it provides them with more time in class, compared to the shorter days with all classes in them.
“I find that block period days allow us to go more in-depth in class and finish projects without rushing,” said Andrew Newton, 11. “I have found that during the 1-6 period days, we tend to be rushing to finish projects before the end of class or that some teachers end up rushing some of the content to finish their lesson by the end of the period, which makes the content harder to learn.”
Brendan Donohue, 11, holds a different position.
“Block does have an extra day to do homework, but 1-6 days have more of a laid-back, relaxed feel to it compared to the rest of the week.”
Although the scheduling changes have caused some debates for students and faculty, the staff is sure that they will be able to adapt to the changes in the upcoming year.
“No matter what the schedule looks like next year, I am confident the Pioneer community will adjust and we will make it work,” said Zaccheo. “I have been here long enough to see that teachers, students, and administration are very flexible and adjust to whatever changes occur. Coming back full time is something we will all need to get back into. But I am sure we will all make it work.”
Pioneer staff have voted on two proposed plans for next year’s bell schedule, with a majority vote of 75% deciding the chosen plan. The law excludes zero periods, which are optional courses held before regular classes. Since both plans included more class time than the current contract requires, teachers had to vote to approve the overage for each plan.
Under Proposal A, approved on May 14 in a 41-3 vote, the school day will look similar to last year’s bell schedule. Students will have regular 1-6 classes on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, with S and C Block period days on Wednesday and Thursday. School is set to start at 8:30 on all but Thursdays. That schedule is still pending final approval from the district.
Proposal B was similar to this year’s bell schedule with Blue, Silver, and Red days, with the all-classes Friday “Red” schedules shifting to Mondays.
Proposal B was the first one voted on, but failed to reach the 75% votes needed to be ratified, only receiving 61% of the eligible 44 votes in favor, which was announced on April 30.
Science teachers were supportive of Proposal B’s increased block periods as it provides more time which is needed for students to complete experiments in their classes.
“As a science teacher, the longer time allows for better use of time for developing and carrying out labs,” said Biology teacher Rob Zaccheo.
Chemistry teacher Laura Bald shared similar sentiments.
“I am more in favor of block periods than regular periods. As a lab science class, it is difficult or close to impossible to conduct experiments in class without block periods. I also teach AP Chemistry and those labs take a lot to set up and have the students in the experiments. In fact, some of those labs require multiple block periods to complete,” Bald said.
Both proposals included FLEX periods, which were missing from this year’s bell schedule. However, Proposal B included four FLEX periods, which caused debate among some faculty.
“Proposal B shortened FLEX periods so I would not be able to use them for exam makeups. I believe four flex periods is too many in the week with some students already goofing off all the time when we have two,” said history department chair Mike Burrell.
English department chair and Site Flexibility Agreement representative, Beth Stafford, had a different perspective.
“I preferred Proposal B. With that option, we had more FLEX periods to offer students support.”
Some students like the block schedules better as it provides them with more time in class, compared to the shorter days with all classes in them.
“I find that block period days allow us to go more in-depth in class and finish projects without rushing,” said Andrew Newton, 11. “I have found that during the 1-6 period days, we tend to be rushing to finish projects before the end of class or that some teachers end up rushing some of the content to finish their lesson by the end of the period, which makes the content harder to learn.”
Brendan Donohue, 11, holds a different position.
“Block does have an extra day to do homework, but 1-6 days have more of a laid-back, relaxed feel to it compared to the rest of the week.”
Although the scheduling changes have caused some debates for students and faculty, the staff is sure that they will be able to adapt to the changes in the upcoming year.
“No matter what the schedule looks like next year, I am confident the Pioneer community will adjust and we will make it work,” said Zaccheo. “I have been here long enough to see that teachers, students, and administration are very flexible and adjust to whatever changes occur. Coming back full time is something we will all need to get back into. But I am sure we will all make it work.”