Starting next school year, Kalama School District's secondary schools will transition to a trimester schedule to give students more flexibility in choosing classes, lower their course loads and give teachers more planning time.
The change came about as part of the district's new strategic plan, which aims to ensure students have access to a variety of courses to help prepare them for their post-graduation goals. The plan was officially launched in June.
"The whole purpose of that was to help our students become future-ready," Superintendent Wesley Benjamin said.
Under the new schedule, the middle and high school year will be broken into 12-week trimesters with five 70-minute class periods each day. The current schedule has 18-week semesters with six 50-minute classes per day.
The district also shifted the timing of some breaks, added five extra minutes to the beginning and end of its regular school days and changed Wednesday early release to begin 40 minutes earlier.
It also changed its parent conference days in October and February from half days to full days, giving students an additional break from school.
Benjamin said the extra breaks are meant to improve students' mental and physical health by reducing their stress and giving them more time to rest. This is especially important in February, when schools typically see an increase in illnesses, he said.
More credits, options.
The new trimester schedule increases the number of credits high school students can earn per year from 6 to 7.5, Chief of Staff Steve Padilla wrote in an email.
One semester of a class counts as half a credit in that subject. Students need a minimum of 24 credits to graduate, which is the same amount they would earn if they passed every class in a typical four-year semester schedule.
"It doesn't allow a lot of exploration," Benjamin said. With the trimester schedule, students could earn up to 30 credits over four years, giving them extra space to explore elective options or retake classes if necessary.
The idea came after the district formed an advisory committee of teachers, parents, students and school leaders to evaluate how well the current schedule met the goals in the new strategic plan.
The committee surveyed parents, students and teachers, and came back with three main priorities, Benjamin said. Parents wanted more elective options, teachers wanted more planning and intervention time and students wanted a manageable course load that allowed them to focus on learning.
With those priorities in mind, the committee looked at examples of different schedules and eventually decided on the trimester system.
"It really was the best option to meet those three main priorities of our different groups," Benjamin said.
Kalama is not the first local district to switch to a trimester schedule. Kelso School District has had trimesters since 2015, and Toutle Lake School District also made the change at the beginning of this school year.
The district's next goal is to find more elective options to fill in the expanded schedule. Many people have requested classes that offer more career exploration opportunities, especially in the medical services field, Benjamin said.
Some of its top candidates include an anatomy and physiology class and a class focused on teaching ethical use of AI tools.
Read the article from The Daily News here.