Cal High has maintained a distinct block schedule for more than 30 years, with students alternating between having all even classes one day and all odd classes the other.
But as all things must come to an end one day, this schedule may be subject to change as early as the 2027-28 school year.
“The U [in SRVUSD] stands for unified, and nothing would be more unified than having us all in the same bell schedule,” said AP Computer Science teacher Rae Ann Crandall, referring to the San Ramon Valley Unified School District.
Crandall is a part of a new bell schedule committee that met for the first time on May 19. The committe formed in an effort to create a uniform schedule for all five high schools in the district.
For the past few years, each school has had its own distinct block bell schedule, with some requiring students to attend all of their classes on one day, otherwise known as the traditional schedule.
Currently, Dougherty Valley High has a traditional schedule on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, with an odd/even block on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
On the other side, both Monte Vista and San Ramon Valley High have a traditional schedule on Mondays, and then alternate even and odd block schedule days the rest of the week.
Del Amigo Continuation High has students follow a traditional schedule all days of the week, with classes being 45 minutes long on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 40 minutes long on Wednesdays and Fridays.
The only traditional schedule days at Cal are generally minimum days, including the first day of school.
Other Cal staff on the 33-member schedule committee include Principal Demetrius Ball, AP Environmental Science teacher Sarah Richardson-Gipson, history teacher Chris Doherty, resource teacher Deborah Bertoni, and counselor Erin Kellar-Hill.
“I joined the bell schedule committee with an open mind and a student-centered focus,” Hill said. “I am interested in hearing the pros and cons of different models.”
The district had each school provide four high school teachers, one counselor and their principal to the committee. Of the four high school teachers, there it’s required to have one special education teacher and one career/technology (CTE) or elective teacher.
There are also nine administrators part of the committee.
“Technically, the district has the ability to just assign the bell schedule for all high schools,” Ball said. “But it will be better if everyone has input. So, the purpose of the committee is to give the union members of SRVEA [San Ramon Valley Educators Assocation] teachers union the opportunity to weigh in on what it could look like.”
Many teachers appreciate the transparency and opportunity the district has provided.
“I did appreciate that the district gave us an answer as to why the conversation is coming up again, as it has come up multiple times in the past,” Gipson said. “I appreciated that they had a straightforward and reasonable explanation for why we’re doing this.”
The need for a new bell schedule stems from a couple different reasons.
One of these concerns is the discrepancy between the amount of time teachers at different high schools are working, which is an issue since all teachers are supposed to work the same hours. Another component is the district’s overall declining enrollment.
Due to this decline, fewer students are coming in, meaning fewer teachers are needed.
But teachers that are tenured are owed positions, so oftentimes they switch to other schools that have space for them to teach.
“If we put together a [common] bell schedule [and a] teacher has to work between Dougherty and Cal High, they [could] teach in the morning at Dougherty, have time to transition, and then they could teach in the afternoon at Cal High,” Ball said. “Or we do something of a hybrid where the teacher stays at Dougherty but we have a classroom here at Cal and students are [on] a Google Meet or Zoom.”
During the first meeting earlier this month, time was spent researching the different kinds of schedules and teachers got the opportunity to provide their input.
Teachers from Career Technical Education and elective classes agree that the new schedule should follow a block model because they allow teachers the time to run through a whole lesson in one period.
“[In] 45 minute periods, you don’t have the time, everything’s rushed, you’re always doing part of a lesson and then have to say the next time you see the kids, ‘Hey do you remember when we did whatever’ and of course half of them don’t,” Crandall said. “For us, 90 minute periods are the best.”
Crandall also gained more insight about the benefits of block schedules from someone who was apart of the original committee when Cal first adopted the odd/even block.
“[Their research showed that] all the extra contacts really ramp up [students’] anxiety,” Crandall said. “That was a part of the original reason to go to an odd/even block. Having fewer contacts psychologically and emotionally is easier for people to handle. It’s less stressful.”
Bertoni has a more neutral stance, believing traditional and block schedules both have advantages and disadvantages.
“It would be great if we could see students everyday, that would be ideal,” Bertoni said. “But on the other hand we have assessments, we have [teacher] meetings and most of our students benefit from extra time.”
The next two meetings have been scheduled for Sept. 1 and Sept. 15.
“When we meet on the first, I think we are going to have something planned and then we will bring it to others and see what they think about it,” Bertoni said.
While getting to know the viewpoints of people who will be affected by a possible schedule change is important, Ball cautions against overdoing it.
“I’m sure that there will be some student input at some point, [according] to the timeline,” Ball said. “[But] one thing to consider is, if we put it out to students or families that’s a lot more people coming in and I think from the standpoint of the district it may slow things down a little bit.”
While students may not be able to share their viewpoints with the district until next school year, they have strong opinions about what bell schedule is ideal.
According to a survey emailed to students, 208 students, or 73.5%, of the 283 responses believe the current schedule is best Forty eight students (17%) prefer having all classes meet on Monday and an alternating odd/even block for the rest of the week, while 17 students (6%) prefer having all classes meet everyday.
“I prefer the Cal schedule the most because I feel like it’s much easier to remember and manage stress and work if you have three to four classes a day,” sophomore River Bosman said.
A major argument for students who do not like the block schedule is how overwhelming it is to receive so much instruction during a single class.
“I understand that it can be a lot to receive instruction for that long but a lot of my teachers give breaks which is nice,” said freshman Katherine Dreyfuss, who likes Cal’s block schedule.
Doherty believes he reflects the interest of most students by supporting the block schedule as well.
“Students like it mostly because they don’t ever have a day where all the homework is due,” Doherty said.
Junior Omkar Anand supports having the traditional schedule on Monday and a block schedule for the rest of the week.
“It was easier because you wouldn’t have block days over and over for week after week,” Omkar said. “There’d be a change every week so it’d be easier for students to manage their work.”
One of the main concerns of students who are against the traditional schedule is having back-to-back tests and carrying supplies for all classes everyday.
“When the class is 45 minutes, usually it’s harder for teachers to schedule a test,” Anand said.
Overall, teachers and students alike hope to pick a schedule that allows for a beneficial teaching and learning environment.
“I’m going into this with an open mind,” Ball said. “I think that personally a common bell schedule could be a benefit to all of us. I’m interested to see what will happen.”
