Niles High School looks at move to seven-period day

Niles High School may move from a six-period schedule to a seven-period schedule beginning next year in order to give students the ability to take more elective classes.

Principal Robin Hadrick is scheduled to give a presentation on the proposed switch to the Niles Community Schools Board of Education at today’s planning meeting.

The board is expected to make a decision on the issue at its Feb. 16 meeting.

A main impetus for the change, Hadrick said, is that the state is requiring students to take two years of foreign language in order to graduate beginning with the Class of 2016. Those added requirements leave fewer options for students wanting to take elective classes such as band, art, career technical education or advanced placement.

Adding one more class period per day would give students more choices.

“Going to a seven-period day will allow students to have extra electives,” Hadrick said.

Another benefit, Hadrick said, is that the high school will be able to build in class time during the day, called academic labs, to help students struggling in the core subject areas of English, math, science and social studies.

“It is our way of automatically setting up a time to support students who need help,” Hadrick said.

Currently, students who need help have to stay after school.

Katherine Elsner, president of the Niles teacher’s union, said teachers support the plan, especially the addition of academic labs.

“What we like about the seven-period day is the built-in time to help the kids who need help, especially our lower classmen who can’t stay after school because they don’t have transportation home,” she said.

Elsner said teachers  have a few concerns about the move, including its impact on class sizes and which, if any, new electives could be added.

“We have a lot of good ideas that we’d like to work out, but we haven’t gotten to that point yet,” she said. “We are looking forward to figuring out how to make it work and we like that we’ve been put into the process.”

Under a seven-period day, class times would decrease from 60 minutes to 50 minutes.

Hadrick said she does not anticipate the move would increase costs for the district, result in a reduction in staff or necessitate additional classrooms.

Those wanting to learn more can see Hadrick’s presentation at 6 p.m. today at Howard Elementary School, 2788 Mannix St., Niles.