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Proposed changes to Haverhill High School’s testing schedule were presented to the School Committee late last week.
Administrators from the high school presented their findings after concerns over the current half-day testing schedule were raised at a meeting a few weeks ago, according to Superintendent Margaret Marotta. They were invited to share their findings and solicit feedback from the Committee.
These changes would have students arrive at school to participate in two 90-minute blocks. At 10:15 a.m., students would be dismissed to class or for testing, if applicable. Haverhill High School Principal Michael Downs explained Thursday.
“It’s really about optimizing times for our students,” he told the committee. “We want to be able to make up time in some of the classes that we miss because of the current half-day schedule. We also want to make an easier transition for our students to go from school to testing.”
Currently, students who take an exam, such as for the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System or Advanced Placement exam, arrive in the morning for the test. Students arrive at school at 7:30, begin testing around 7:45 and stay until 10:15. Students who need extra time are relocated to one of approximately five classrooms set aside for testing.
Other students resume their schedules around 10:30 a.m., with some students with an earlier lunch block provided with a grab and go lunch.
Downs added, “Often, students don’t come to school on time. We are hoping by starting the testing later, those students that need to test will be in school by that particular time and we can capture them, get them their lunch and get them to testing.” He noted students who would otherwise need extra time for the exam would see staff stay with them so that “there would be no loss in testing time.”
The principal said another aim of the change is to work within space constraints. The way the school is configured, some classrooms are shared by grades. Associate Principal Victoria Lu explained.
“The way that the wings are broken down at the high school, we have 118 classrooms. In order to meet the needs of all of our testing groups, we need 34 classrooms for testing. Our largest wing at the high school currently has 28 classrooms. So, we’re looking at having to shut down multiple parts of the building to accommodate testing. Of our 118 classrooms, 49 of them are shared among multiple staff members, so it would be difficult to relocate 34 staff members to make space for testing.”
Committee member Yonnie Collins raised concern about attendance, questioning whether students would be less likely to come to school for classes when flipping the model. She said, “We are going to have more students because in the afternoons, our last two blocks of the day are F and G blocks, they’re static. That’s when we have early college and modified schedules, so we’re actually going to have more students in school because of this, because we’re not having those blocks at the end of the day. And the blocks are longer to make up for the other half days.”
In other School Committee business, after a motion by committee Vice Chair Richard J. Rosa and a second by members Gail M. Sullivan, all members present voted to authorize Marotta to submit a Statement of Interest to the Massachusetts School Building Authority for repairs or replacement to the Golden Hill School roof. Haverhill city councilors are expected to also sign-off on the request Tuesday night.