Teachers will vote on a proposed change to the bell schedule for the 2024-25 school year next week. 

The proposed schedule would change the tutorial from the way it is now, 25 minutes at the end of each block period, to one 45 minute tutorial after the first block on Tuesday through Friday. An additional passing period would allow students to move from their first class of the block day to the tutorial setting.

The start and end times of the school days would remain virtually unchanged because, by law, schools must provide 64,800 minutes of instruction and teachers can only teach 1,400 minutes per week.

Monday would feature a new 10 minute advisement period attached to 2nd period where students register themselves for the coming week’s tutorials. 

Proponents of the plan say it would allow more time for targeted academic intervention as well as enrichment opportunities for students. 

Two types of tutorials will be offered, intervention and enrichment. Intervention tutorials will be limited to 5-30 students and are a closed period aimed at helping students who have fallen behind. Enrichment tutorials would be open for students to use as a study hall or teachers may choose to hold tutorials where they could teach students about subjects outside of required content.

Priority days would be delegated to academic departments. If requested by a teacher on their respective priority day, a student must report to that teacher’s tutorial. Priority days would be used to help students make-up tests or quizzes or gain additional support.

Critics argue the idea of priority days isn’t viable because certain departments will share a priority day, undermining the idea of true priority, according to a source familiar with the debate.

Students not requested by a teacher could choose a study hall classroom or other options offered by teachers in the online sign-up program, called “Enriching Students.”

The self-scheduling software will be used at four of the six comprehensive high schools in the Capistrano Unified School District in the upcoming academic year at a cost to the district of $8,100 per site, according to sources familiar with the plan.

While the proposal increases the amount of tutorial time from 25 to 45 minutes, it is a single session. Overall, the tutorial minutes allocated across a school week would decrease from 300 to 160. The proposed change, while taking away total tutorial time, aims to help students and teachers better use tutorials for a specific purpose.

In the past, some students have complained about teachers continuing instruction past the tutorial bell, allowing less time for students to catch up on work or re-learn topics of confusion. The proposed change adds nine instructional minutes to each block period, 100 minutes instead of 91, but it eliminates the 25 minute tutorial attached to each block period. That could potentially resolve the time issue some teachers experience.

Teachers were introduced to the proposed schedule on April 17 by a tutorial committee, a group of teachers who have been working on the plan for almost a year, visiting schools who are using it to see first-hand how it works. After the meeting, staff members were asked to put questions and concerns on a document where the committee would address them.

In order for the proposal to pass, a 75% vote from staff is needed, or 97 out of 129 voters. Dr. Mahindrakar is asking all certificated staff (teachers, counselors, and administrators) to participate, as they would all have a role in implementing the new schedule.

The voting will occur on April 23 and 24. If it passes, the school would implement it for a one-year period before another vote on whether or not to keep it.

You can add your thoughts using the comment bubble to the right of this article. The video below shows how students can use the software to request appointments.