Next Year's Calendar and Schedule

For returning parents and students,

Here is important information about the 2014-15 school year, which begins on Wednesday, August 12th:

• Link to the Student/Staff Calendar
• Link to the Bell Schedule

Please note that we have altered the Bell Schedule for next year, including the elimination of Late Start Fridays and Friday Sessions. Instead we will have a singleton "Thursday Session" and seven minimum days. Our school day will continue to run from 8am until 3:00pm, but the reconfiguration will allow students to take up to seven classes instead of just six. We are confident this new design will provide our students with maximum access to the courses they desire, and the enrichment and support that they need.

Summary of new bell schedule:

• On Mondays, students go to all seven classes. Each class lasts 50 minutes, and team taught classes last 110 minutes. 
• On Tuesdays and Thursdays, students go to Periods 2, 4, and 6. There will be an Advisory on Tuesdays between second and fourth period. There will be a "Thursday Session" on Thursday between second and fourth period. All classes are 89 minutes each, including Advisory and Thursday Session.
• On Wednesdays and Fridays, students go to Periods 1, 3, 5, and 7. All classes last 89 minutes. 
• Students may take an optional early flight PE class that begins at 7:00 am. 
• The "Math Workshop" support class will be embedded within the regular school day (instead of being an after-school class)

Number of minimum classes required by grade level:

• 9th and 10th graders are required to attend school for the full school day, from 8am until 3:00 pm.
• 11th graders are required to attend a minimum of 5 NVUSD classes.
• 12th graders are required to attend a minimum of 4 NVUSD classes. 
• FYI, this is the same policy which has been in place at New Tech and throughout NVUSD for many years! But now, our 9th and 10th graders will be accessing 7 instead of 6 classes within the regular 8-3 school day.

Why are the start / end times of classes so "odd"?

The state has specific requirements for the number of minutes that students must be in school each, as well as requirements for when milk break and lunch can occur. When all these variables are taken into consideration, there was no other way to make each day's classes the same length without having start times like 11:16.We still expect students to arrive to class and be in their seats on time, and will be certain to post many visuals around our campus to help our students learn the new schedule! 

Why did we abandon the Friday Sessions?

The 2013-14 school year was, by design, a one-year pilot to try out "Friday Sessions". We created the Friday Sessions with specific goals and outcomes we were hoping to achieve. We collected data and surveyed students and parents about the effectiveness of the current Friday schedule design. Here is what we learned:

• We intended to reduce the total number of Ds and Fs which students were earning. Friday Sessions did NOT reduce the total number of Ds and Fs.
• Students often elected to do the same free choice activity every week for the majority of the year, but our intention was to give students enrichment opportunities which would stretch them to grow and learn new things. For example, students who loved frisbee played frisbee for most of their free choices instead of trying out a new and different enrichment opportunity every six weeks. 
• We saw a significant increase in absenteeism on Fridays. 
• By having one (instead of three) session on Thursdays, we believe that we can still offer enrichment opportunities for students, as well as academic support. We will be designing a system to facilitate students to sign up for their Thursday Session so that parents and teachers can approve and support the choices the students are making.

Why are there so many different minimum day schedules?

The variety of minimum days and minimum day schedules is due to the need to keep a balanced number of minutes, over the course of an entire school year, for every class and every period. We will send out the correct minimum day schedule in advance as a reminder to all families and parents.