Board Balks at Middle School Schedule Change

The Hopatcong Board of Education rejected an administration plan to alter the middle school class schedule next year to even out the schedules of sixth, seventh and eighth graders.

Superintendent Charles Maranzano said the changes would have produced 4,500 more minutes of instruction time in a school year, created a uniform, but longer, 40-minute lunch period, but potentially would have reduced time for classes for electives, like art and music and foreign language from two to one.

The loss of electives soured the board on the plan. They preferred the current plan which allows students two elective periods at a time.

Board member Richard Lavery said the longer lunch period was “wasted time” and wanted to see a schedule with more class time.

Maranzano sought an up-or-down vote on the plan so the personnel plan for new school year beginning in September can be completed for board approval next April 22.

That plan includes a shift of 4.5 positions from the middle school to the high school that was approved last month. The jobs will shift to the high school because of lower enrollment at the middle school and will support three new high school electives, home economics, criminal justice and athletic training.

The new schedule would produce seven academic classes of 42 minutes each and a lunch period. Current middle school schedules have nine periods, including lunch.

Jeff Hallenbeck, director of curriculum, said because of current scheduling, the middle school “is like three separate schools,” with different requirements for each of the different grades which create many scheduling conflicts for teachers.

He said the current scheduling scheme was put in place years ago when there were between 900 and 950 students in the middle school and, in response to the size of the lunchroom at the time, 20-minute lunch periods were created in order to feed all the students efficiently.

The middle school now has 530 students, Hallenbeck said.

Board member Michelle Perrotti said the loss of a full instructional period concerned her, as did providing a 40-minute lunch period for middle school students.

“Middle school is a hormonal breeding ground,” she said. “A 40-munite lunch period is too long not to get in trouble.”

Hallenbeck said the administration was trying to respond to the board’s directive to increase students’ outcomes while operating under tight budget restrictions.

But middle school teacher Susan Hill, who is also president of the Hopatcong Education Association, said many teachers use the extra 20 minute gaps in the current schedule to offer extra help for students, or perform other activities that aid students.

She said the type of schedule proposed by the administration was once used in the district and it was unsuccessful.

“Been there, done that, didn’t work,” she said.