LETTER: School schedule shift makes sense

To the Editor:

I was very pleased to see Somerset is switching back to an eight-period school day. I was very perplexed in 1997 when they implemented a four-period day.

It was obvious they would not have continuity in math. If three semesters of math are required to graduate, a student could do the requirement by January of their sophomore year and never take math again.

It’s sad it took so long to realize it wasn’t working and our students had to suffer and have the bottom ACT scores of all the eight schools in our conference to force the change. I’m also surprised our music program was able to send so many students to solo and ensemble state competition during those years. Mr. Zolldan, Mr. Duerkop, and Mr. Berg put many hours into making it work. It looks like Mr. Emerson is following in their footsteps.

The new system sounds very confusing but there should be more continuity. Please be aware, as soon as you notice this system isn’t working, be willing to change before our student’s minds and learning suffer again.

My last child graduated in 1999 but my grandchildren are coming up. Get back on the cutting edge.

Susan I. Hanson

Somerset

Tags: letters to the editor, opinion