DHS schedule change won't affect buses
By CARRIE FRILLMAN cfrillman@daily-chronicle.com
A schedule change next academic year at DeKalb High School will not affect the transportation of students, administrators said.
The DeKalb School Board approved the tweak – it makes every Wednesday a late start for students – earlier this summer to provide professional development time for teachers.
The typical DHS school day begins at 7:45 a.m., but on Wednesdays during the 2009-2010 academic year, the bell will ring at 8:55 a.m., said Roger Scott, the district’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
“The bus schedule is not changing,” he said, noting that a fair number of sophomores, juniors and seniors drive to the school. “... There will be access for those students who still do take the bus to catch it at the normal time.”
The added time will provide teachers and staff members with one solid hour of meeting time and 10 minutes to get settled in their classrooms, said Lindsey Hall, the district’s assistant superintendent for human resources.
Teachers and staff will use meetings to analyze student data, discuss common assessments among different departments, improve curriculum development, and gain support for teaching strategies, Scott said.
Students will have the opportunity to get tutoring help, if they need it, or they can study or simply eat breakfast, Hall said.
“We really considered how doing this once a week would impact family schedules,” she said. “We wanted to be considerate of that so we didn’t change the bus schedules on purpose. If kids ride the buses, they will still arrive at the high school at the same time and we will be providing supervision.”
Each period of the school day on Wednesdays will be shortened by about eight minutes – from 48 minutes to 40 – to allow the school day to conclude at its usual time, Hall said.
