Healdsburg Unified

Enrichment
The basic goal of any school principal is to create, support and provide comprehensive academic and developmental services and programs that meet the needs of all their students. Many diverse decisions and action plans contribute to this goal and consistent review and refinement are critical for success.
Securing and retaining highly trained professionals, (teachers, counselors, administration, coaches and support staff) to implement these plans is paramount to success, but equally important is logistical and structural support. In a school setting, no structure has more positive or negative impact on student success than the bell schedule.
I am extremely pleased to announce that Healdsburg Junior High will have a new seven class period block schedule for the 2016-17 school year. We will transition from a standard six period day to a seven period block schedule in August. Why change the bell schedule? Simply put, to provide more choice, opportunities and academic support for our students.
With a six period day, students who require an academic intervention course in either English or Math may not be able to have an elective or a science course. Students who do not require an intervention still have only one enrichment choice. If a student wishes to take Band and Robotics, they must choose one or the other.
A seven period day addresses these shortcomings in our current schedule. Intervention students will now be able to enroll in an enrichment course. Our second language learners enrolled in Accelerated English will now have access to more enrichment opportunities. Finally, students will have two enrichment classes instead of one.
The middle grades should be a time of academic and creative exploration. Our ability to provide more choice and support for our students gets us closer to our goal of reaching the developmental, academic and emotional growth needs of each and every one of our students.
Fifth, sixth and seventh grade students completed an interest survey this winter and we are in the beginning stages of building a schedule and course selection process that provides class choices that pair with their interests and our school goals. We will continue to offer Spanish, AVID (Advancement via Individual Determination), Robotics, Plant Science, Recycled Art, Band and Yearbook/Journalism. We will add more Technology, Fine Arts, Leadership and a wider range of Spanish classes in the coming year.
This bell schedule change is a result of more than a year of collective work by the faculty of Healdsburg Junior High. I would like to express my appreciation to our teachers and the entire staff for taking part of the schedule planning process and their willingness to create and support a schedule that truly has our students’ best interests in mind.
Bill Halliday is the principal of Healdsburg Junior High.