Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 8, 1995 TAG: 9504110020
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
An estimated 300 high school students in Roanoke will go to school next year before the school day begins.
They'll be in class by 7:40 a.m. - even though Patrick Henry and William Fleming high schools don't open until 8:25 a.m.
City schools have approved an expanded program for early-morning classes next year so more students can take seven courses a year.
The students will have to take the seventh course during the so-called "zero period" before the high schools open for other students.
The city has a small program this year for students who take courses early in the morning mainly because they have conflicts in their schedules.
The school system decided to expand the program because of a demand by parents and students for the opportunity to take a seventh course. The School Board has included $60,000 in the 1995-1996 budget to provide more courses, add teachers and instructional materials for students who want to take a seventh subject.
This will be the first time a large number of students will have the opportunity to take courses early in the morning.
Students are signing up now, said Rita Bishop, assistant superintendent for instructional services and learning organizations. School officials expect up to 300 to want to take courses.
Some students said they want to take more electives to be better prepared for college. Others said they just have an interest in a course.
Some want to take a foreign language. Others want electives in the arts.
Bishop said the course offerings will be determined by the students' requests.
Patrick Henry High is offering several zero-period courses this year, including a strings orchestra class and two health classes.
William Kinzie, director of the Roanoke City High School Strings Orchestra and the teacher for the early morning class, said most students take it because they don't have an open space during their regular school day. "They are bright kids who like music and they are forced by their schedules to take it in the morning," Kinzie said.
One student said she has to rush to get to class by 7:40 a.m. She has her own car and drops her sister off at Woodrow Wilson Middle School.
"I race to beat the clock here," she said.
Another student said her mother brings her to the early morning orchestra class. "There is no other time that I could take it," she said.
When the city discarded the traditional seven-period schedule for high school students a few years ago and switched to a block schedule, students lost the opportunity take seven courses.
The city's block schedule has three 105-minute classes each day. It alternates daily so students have three courses on one day, and three other subjects the next. With the block schedule, students can take only six courses at a time.
Some city students have been attending Cave Spring High School in recent years because it has a seven-period day with time for more courses. Several parents told the School Board recently that more city students would be forced to go to the county school unless they could take seven courses.
Earlier, city school officials investigated the possibility of adding another period, possibly in the middle of the day. But they estimated that it would cost $1.2 million because it would require the hiring of 30 additional teachers.
Superintendent Wayne Harris said he was sympathetic to the parents' concern, but the problem was money.
By expanding the program for early morning classes rather than adding a new period, city school officials said, they have saved more than $1 million.
Except for the complaints about a seventh course, school officials said the block schedule is working smoothly.
by CNB