The Swampscott School Committee is considering changing Swampscott High School’s course-schedule system in an effort to build student engagement and a sense of school community while making it easier for students to engage in off-campus academic programs.
Swampscott Middle School Assistant Principal Emily Zotto and Swampscott High School Principal Dennis Kohut were both tasked with studying the schools’ schedule systems and drafting proposed improvements and modifications.
Zotto said that Swampscott High School previously operated under a seven-class rotating-block system, in which students’ daily class times cycled day-by-day and week-by-week. Under the proposed fixed-schedule system, classes one through four will be scheduled for one school day, with classes four through eight scheduled for the next, and one day each week — either Wednesday or Friday — in which students would attend all eight classes.
In a presentation to the School Committee, Zotto said that a rotating schedule limits students’ access to off-campus opportunities, such as dual enrollment at North Shore Community College. She added that the schedule also made it more difficult for students in need of academic support to schedule appointments with teachers and counselors during the day.
“When we have students go off campus to take college-level classes at North Shore… their achievement is at a high level, those students are ready for it. The fact that we can provide that on campus within our schedule is a huge benefit and advantage to our students,” Zotto said at the committee’s meeting last Thursday. “I do not think that we are far away from a really good schedule for our students.”
The change would also make the high school’s X block, a 30-minute open period in which students can meet with teachers, attend elective programs, or catch up on homework, occur more consistently each day.
A consistent X block, School Committee member Amy O’Connor said, would make it easier for students to meet with their teachers outside of the classroom on a regular basis.
“There was some hesitation in (scheduling time with a teacher) for not liking to feel like they were in trouble. But, if you’re doing it sort of consistently and people know that that’s what the expectation is, then there isn’t the thought of trouble,” O’Connor said. “You’re also using it as just a way to get to know people better and have that student-adult relationship.”
Superintendent of Schools Pamela Angelakis said she believes the proposed schedule corresponds with the district’s long-term goals.
“This core work and the connections of the kids, and the feeling of belonging and the equity in the working of our subgroups to get them to take more advanced courses, all of that work fits with this schedule,” Angelakis said.
