Student government reports offer glimpse into KCSD from student perspective, Bucktail student presents block scheduling survey analysis
By Christopher Miller
BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP, PA – Keystone Central School District has been instrumental in including student government reports as part of the monthly Thursday evening work sessions meetings. Each month, a student government representative from Bucktail Middle/High School, Central Mountain Middle, and Central Mountain High Schools have spoken to members of the school board regarding what is happening in their respective schools.
The President of Student Government at Central Mountain Middle School, Cameron Rhine, reported on a survey that was released to middle school students within the past month about what they think can be improved upon at the school. “There are many requests for more food options and vending machines,” Rhine said. “We looked into getting a vending machine, but it would be a big pain with all the nutrition regulations, so we are thinking about a snack cart, so we met with Food Services to see about any restrictions with it, hoping to have it ready to go in the weeks after spring break.
“A dodgeball tournament was also held with eight teams for grades 7 and 8, and 16 teams for grades 5 and 6,” he said. “It was a good time and we sold snacks, had medals and treats for the winners.”
Joe, representing Central Mountain High School in Claire’s absence, reminded the board of the upcoming production of Mama Mia! in the high school auditorium from March 22 – 24. He also discussed the recent ratification of the student government constitution, and that they are looking forward to giving a formal presentation to the school board in April.
“We appreciate Dr. Redmon coming to meet with us and hearing our concerns and thoughts for the future and we are looking forward to future dialog with him and administration,” Joe said. “On February 16-23 held a fundraiser for St. Jude Hospital that netted a $1,673.53 donation. “We have swimmers and wrestlers going into the finals, senior projects being presented on March 11, and some PBIS rewards being offered in the coming weeks.”
Martin Lewis of Bucktail High School delivered a thorough and well-planned report on the analysis of data compiled from recent student and teacher surveys regarding block scheduling.
“Welcome to KCSD, Dr. Redmon, we hope your first month has gone well,” Martin started. “I have a block scheduling report to give to you this evening, but first I want to recognize the boys and girls basketball teams going to the playoffs, the boys for the first time since 1989 and the girls in their district playoffs.”
The data presented by Martin for the school board to consider is related to block scheduling, which is an alternative class scheduling method where rather than several periods per day, the school day is broken into five blocks, more relative of a Fall and Spring semester at the collegiate level.
“Our current class scheduling consists of five block classes per day each lasting 84 minutes in length, originally the schedule was either seven or nine periods in a day lasting 45 minutes for each class,” he explained. “The classes are now basically twice as long as they were before, and it is pretty hard for teens to sit in a class for an hour and a half and pay attention to a single teacher for that amount of time, and it may be hard for the teacher to plan enough content to fill the time adequately.”
Martin then mentioned Advanced Placement (AP) classes, saying that when the class is over in the first semester, the exam for college credit does not occur until the end of the second semester, which is the end of the school year, worrying that too much time had passed from the time the class ended, and the exam in May or June.
Data from the student and teacher surveys is outlined below:
Length of Classes
56% of students replied that classes are too long, 42% saying they are a reasonable length
73% of teachers replied that classes are too long
Classwork
53% of students replied that they “somewhat agree” like they do more busy work than meaningful assignments, 27% completely agreed
53% of teachers replied that they “somewhat agree” that they find it difficult to fill the entire class block with meaningful work, less than 7% completely agreed, and 26% “somewhat disagreed”
Student Mood and Attention
45% of students “somewhat agreed” that they feel bored in class, with 35% “completely agreeing” with the statement
53% of teacher surveyed responded with “somewhat agree” that students become disengaged during class, with only 20% completely agreeing, and 26% completely disagreeing
Number of Classes Offered
56% of students believe that Bucktail has too few classes offered
80% of teacher surveyed say that Bucktail has too few classes
Opinion: what class length would be easier to teach under and plan for?
53% of respondents said that a 60 minute class would be easier to teach and plan for
20% replied with a 50 minute class
20% replied with an 80 minute class
less than 7% of teachers said that a 70 minute class would be easier to teach and plan for
Opinion: do you feel your physical classroom is sufficient to teach all the classes you are assigned?
86% of teachers agreed that their classroom is sufficient
13% of teachers responded that their classroom is insufficient
Were you aware of the professional development support offered by Keystone Central School District when block scheduling was originally rolled out at BHS?
46% of teachers replied with “no” they were not aware of professional development support
33% replied that they were aware of support
20% responded that they were not teaching at Bucktail when the schedule switch was implemented
Opinion: before 2021, Bucktail ran a period bell schedule, with 9 periods a day with usually rotating classes. If you remember this system, which do you prefer? (only 11th and 12th grade students surveyed)
63% of students responded that they prefer the block scheduling
36% said traditional period class scheduling
Next steps, according to Martin, are to review yearly attendance, testing, and behavior data.
