The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Public Schools Board of Education met on Oct. 17 to discuss moving to a block schedule for the district’s high schools.
The district decided to move to a traditional block district earlier this year. The new schedule is scheduled to begin at the beginning of the 2025-26 school year, according to the district’s website.
Bob Bales, executive director of curriculum and instruction for secondary education and academic programming, gave a presentation to the board on transition priorities and considerations. Key areas of focus are new student information systems, balancing academic schedules, communicating effectively with families, and addressing staffing challenges.
Given the schedule changes, Bales said one of the district’s goals is to have all course space guides updated, ideally by November.
Additionally, the transition to a block schedule will include professional development for teachers and staff. Bales said this is an aspect that teachers have been looking for for some time.
Bales said it is necessary to gather feedback directly from teachers and wants to hear from them.
“I feel like I talked about this too much with my teachers at school, so I think I should be on the Christmas card,” Bales said. “For me, I actually want to be able to get as much information from the teacher as possible.”
Although many teachers know about the decision to move to a block schedule, Bales said most want to know how the change will affect their work.
Bales said he believes a lot of progress can be made by having one-on-one conversations with teachers and parents and learning how they will be affected.
