New High School Schedule Considered

Irvine High School Principal Gail Richards is looking for approval tonight from school board members for a plan that would dramatically change the way classes are scheduled.

The block scheduling plan would “de-juvenize” high school classes, according to Richards, creating a college-like class schedule.

Most 52-minute classes would be extended to 90 minutes, along with other scheduling changes that Richards said would lower average class size from about 35 to 29 students.

Some classes would meet on alternate days, giving students an opportunity to concentrate on a section of their course load instead of facing a full slate of classes each day.

“This structure gives kids a chance to focus on fewer academic courses and gives them longer blocks of time to be working on them,” Richards said.

Irvine Unified School District board members are expected to approve the plan, which would begin next fall for Irvine High School’s 2,400 students.

“This is a major, positive change,” said school board President Mary Ellen Hadley said about the complex plan. “It’s sort of like a Rubik’s Cube.”

Athletics and most core academic courses would remain on a daily schedule. But daily classes that now take an entire school year would be completed in a single semester because of their 90-minute length. Most parent concerns center on this “compression” of course material into a single semester, according to Richards, who has spent two years creating the new plan.