West Seattle High School

West Seattle High School will run two schedules for next school year 2008-09. First semester will be a 6-period rolling schedule with six 55 minute classes on Monday and Friday, and four 85-minute classes Tuesday through Thursday. Second semester will be 6 straight 55-minute classes Monday through Friday. We have determined to run two separate schedules next year to gather authentic and experiential feedback from our staff and students. Our aim is to determine the best schedule for West Seattle High School students, staff members, and program offerings as we transition to a 6-period structure. Start and end times for the school day are being voted on this spring, and we will release final bell schedules by the end of the year.

The West Seattle High School staff has done a wonderful job of determining the textbook, equipment, curriculum materials, and classroom supplies needed to make the transition to a 6-period day within each of their departments. District officials are currently processing our requests and supporting our transitional needs.

Recently, student registrations were collected, and currently our counselors are meeting with students to confirm interest and accuracy with student choice, and our registrar is compiling the data and aligning it with our course offerings. A final master schedule will be released later this spring.

HISTORY OF THE TRANSITION:

On October 1, 2007 Chief Academic Officer, Carla Santorno gave a presentation to the community at an open forum in the WSHS Theatre. The presentation explains her rationale for directing WSHS to return to a six-period day. The presentation is informative and includes strategies for implementation, as well as information on graduation requirements.

The new schedule will be implemented in the coming (2008/2009) school year. Check the WSHS website for regular updates on the schedule implementation and how you can support your student.
Click here to see her PowerPoint presentation from that evening.

Click here to see the December 18, 2007 update on the 4 to 6 period day transition.

Click here to see the November 8, 2007 update in .pdf format.

West Seattle High School Steering Committee

A West Seattle High School Steering Committee, consisting of school staff, parents and students, was formed to look at scheduling options and to develop a recommendation for a modified schedule for the 2008 – 09 school year. The Committee recommendations may be anything from a modified four-period day to a straight six-period day, or anything in between.

The Steering Committee parent representatives were:

Marilyn Anderson-Burt (burtfamily40@msn.com)
Marysue Hildebrandt (hildevali@gmail.com)
John Hutchens (John_Hut@msn.com)
Laura Sinai (laura@coopersy.org)
Nancy Swenson (nansonia@hotmail.com)

The staff representatives were: Marcia Berenter, Mike Gervais, Wayne Grytting, Pat Jewell, Nancy LaRiviere, Kathy Newman, Doug Peterman, Stephanie Rasic-Stebens, Connie Savoie, and Jeff Ursino. Contact information can be found on the Faculty and Staff page.

The student representatives were: Verena Chung, and Jesse Roark.

Steering Committee Meetings were held on the second and fourth Tuesdays from 3 – 4:30 PM at the school. The committee will meet through the end of the school year in June, at which time we will present our schedule recommendation to Chief Academic Officer Carla Santorno. The meetings are open and all are welcome to attend.

Steering Committee News

The WSHS New Schedule Steering Committee, under the direction of Ramona Pierson, has been working on the School Board's request regarding the 4-period day. The School Board has requested that we:

Develop a plan for communicating the information from this committee out to the school, parents and the community.
Develop recommendations for a modified school schedule by June, 2007.

One of the concerns that has been expressed by the district and parents is the need for year-long classes in math, world languages, and music. The reason for modifying the schedule is to address these concerns. The new schedule will be adopted for the 2008-2009 school year.

The first two meetings were spent working on the first request. During the March 13th meeting we reviewed four sample schedules. The district scheduler will run a simulation on the four sample schedules using our current population of staff, students, and class requests and will let us know at the next meeting (March 22nd) if they are workable. A copy of the four different schedules can be found on the bulletin board in the copy room.

To read the April 17, 2007 letter to the Commitee from Chief Academic Officer Carla Santorno regarding the 2008-09 Schedule Format, please click here.

To see the outline of Mr. Brad Bernatek's presentation of May 8, 2007, please click here.

Meeting Minutes

4-Period Day Evaluation and Recommendations

Carla Santorno provided her evaluation and recommendations on the 4-period day to the Student Learning Committee of the School Board. The evaluation and recommendations in electronic form are available by clicking here. The accompaning PowerPoint presentation can be found by clicking here.