San Francisco middle school students will retain an extra period in the school day after the district scrapped a proposal to drop from seven periods to six — a move that had sparked anger from students and teachers alike.
The reduction to a six period day would have forced students to prioritize required classes over optional electives, including music, art, sports, and other enrichment activities. Students with special needs or those who are learning English as a second language have more required classes in the day, and the change would have meant cutting out an elective altogether.
But in an apparent reversal on Tuesday evening, the San Francisco Unified School District announced that middle schools on a seven-period bell schedule, which accounts for a significant number of middle schools across the district, will keep their extra period.
“I am happy to share that we will continue to operate seven-period schedules at all schools that currently use this model,” wrote Associate Superintendent of Educational Services Teresa Shipp, in a post to the district’s website. “I am grateful to the parents, principals, and our greater community who have shown up to engage with us on this issue.”
Other proposed SFUSD cuts, previously reported on by Mission Local, are still pending. These could include changes to the school’s bus system, layoffs, and cuts to middle school wellness programs. The cuts, Mission Local reported, may hit small, low-income schools the hardest.
Under SFUSD’s abandoned plan, the length of the school day itself would have remained the same. But the district argued that by offering fewer classes to students and making those classes longer, the district would both cut costs and increase time in the classroom because there would be less time spent by students traveling from class to class.
The attempt to change the schedule is connected to SFUSD’s struggle to meet the state’s mandated minimum instructional time requirements while staying within its budget goals.
Shipp said that the district is looking into alternative methods to increase instructional time and improve 3rd grade literacy rates and 8th grade math scores, both of which are low. Last year, according to testing results, less than half of 3rd grade students across the district were able to read at their grade level.
Next year, Shipp said the district will likely increase instructional minutes in core classes like math and English, and re-work the bell schedule to maximize time in the classroom, without cutting the school day by a period.
Students who have special needs or are learning English as a second language should not be expected to go without electives, teachers and parents opposed to the schedule change argued. Nearly a third of the musicians in the school band at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in the Portola, for example, fall into this category, according to band director Tom Hurlbut.
When his students learned classmates could lose their band practice, said Hurlbut, they were “devastated.” One student told him that he didn’t want to come to school anymore.
“Even eighth grade students who would no longer be here next year said that this will ruin the school … [and] it’s just not fair,” said the bandleader.
The school band decided to make its displeasure abundantly clear. Seven families, many of whom brought along children enrolled in band, came to the typically near-empty meeting room for Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School’s site council meeting, when the superintendent and her staff visited to discuss potential cuts in January. The families pleaded their case directly.
The middle school band has become a source of pride for the students — last year, the band performed at the indie music venue Bottom of the Hill, and loved it. In a photo shared by Hurlbut, the students, holding electric guitars and standing before a microphone, don matching “MLK Cobra Band” sweatshirts, named after the school’s mascot.
This year, they will take the stage again, which may be their last performance before the venue closes at the end of the year.
The news of restoration of the seven-period day, Hulbut said, hasn’t reached his middle school class yet. “But when it does,” he said, “it will be a relief.”