North Canton City School Officials Work Out How to Cut 30 Minutes From Middle School Schedule

North Canton City School officials are exploring how to cut a half-hour out of students’ schedules for next year. One option they’re considering is a student-assist period that students could take advantage of anytime throughout the day.

With 30 fewer minutes in the day (they’ll take the half-hour off the end of the school day), officials figure students will spend less time in academic assist, a study hall-type period in which students seek help from teachers and catch up on work.

To remedy that, they talked at the Board of Eduction meeting Wednesday night about offering a student-assist period that continues throughout the day. If a student needs extra help that his teacher can’t provide at that time, he can go to the assist classroom where a designated teacher will be able to help him.

The middle school runs 7:35 a.m.-2:45 p.m., and officials want to change that to 7:35 a.m.-2:15 p.m. in the coming school year. According to the district's website, those eliminated 30 minutes break down like this:

• 3 fewer minutes in homeroom
• 4 fewer minutes passing between classes
• 23 fewer minutes in academic assist

Similar to the talk of , this move will allow the district to save money at a time when it's receiving considerably less money from the state.

Curriculum Director Peggy Savage said although academic assist minutes will be cut, students still will be in academic assist about 23 minutes each day. Their lunch periods will be split in half, so that they’re in academic assist for one half and in the cafeteria for the other, for a total of 46 minutes.

Savage said that will help get the students in and out of lunch lines more quickly and cut down on tension caused by overcrowding in the lunchroom.

Classes actually will be lengthened by three minutes with the new schedule. Those classes remain the same at five core classes and two exploratory.

Board members and school officials also talked about the upcoming changes to ’s schedule. Those changes — taking the school from an eight-period day to a seven-period day to cut costs — won’t take place in the coming school year, though.

This also leaves less time for study halls, something the board members said are important to the student school day.

School officials believe they can cut costs if they eliminate one period from the schedule, figuring fewer teachers equals less cost to the district. Board of Education Member Nancy Marion asked Savage how much the district saved when it started allowing early dismissal and late arrival, which essentially eliminated a period from those students’ schedules, but Savage was unsure of that number.

“We’re looking at how our teachers spend their time,” Savage said. “Do you want them in classes, or do you want them in study halls? I think we want them in classes.”

Eliminating one period gives students the opportunity to graduate with 28 credits when only 20 are required to graduate.

The Board took no action on either topic Wednesday night.

The Board of Education will meet next at 6 p.m. June 8 for its regular meeting and then at 7:30 a.m. June 29 in the District Office conference room for a special meeting.