Cal High Students Tell SRVUSD Board They Don't Want Schedule Change

About ten Cal High students and English teacher Stacey Quick voiced their concerns about a schedule change that is tentatively set for the 2012-13 school year during the public comment session at the San Ramon Valley Unified School District school board meeting Tuesday night.

Cal High principal Mark Corti, who attended last night’s meeting, plans to change the schedule to include one traditional day each week in addition to the current block schedule.

The students’ reasons against the schedule change ranged from a heavy workload to superficial discussions due to a shorter amount of class time. Many questioned the reason why something should be fixed if it isn’t broken to start with. Another concern with the Cal High administration was the quick decision they made without any feedback from students or teachers.

“The kids were impressive,” said school board member Paul Gardner.

Former Cal High parent Becky Livingston also spoke about the proposed change, but disagreed with the students’ points. She said when her daughter switched from a block schedule to a traditional schedule with all classes on a given day, there was no change in her academic performance and actually had better contact with teachers.

“Opportunities have been made (to discuss the change with students). It doesn’t have to be ‘let’s go beat up our leader’,” said board member Rachel Hurd.

Members of the board were unable to comment directly to the speakers because of the public comment session rules.

The meeting continued with the passage of five action items, including propositions to support February as African American History Month and National School Counseling Week as Feb 6-10 of this year. All consent items were passed as well.

Ritika Iyer is a student at California High School.