Last month, West Chester Area School District introduced a new high school schedule that would significantly shake up the district’s decades-old model. As you may or may not recall, the administration would like to move to a Drop 2 schedule with a rotation for all West Chester High Schools starting with the 2026-2027 school year.

Under the new schedule, students would operate on a four-day cycle, meaning all classes are attended at least once every four days. Currently, high school students operate on a five-day cycle. In addition, class length will increase from 42 minutes to 53 minutes, the order of classes will change daily helping to ensure the same class is not missed repeatedly, and students will have a mandatory one-hour Lunch & Learn (two 30-minute periods) every day.

However, overall instructional time will be cut by an equivalent of two weeks a year for every class. This means course material will need to be covered at a faster pace, but doing so would free up more professional development time for teachers. This is a priority for district administrators.

If that seems like a lot, it is. Changes also have the potential to touch many other areas of high school life, all of which has left teachers feeling uneasy about the change.

Survey results:

A survey of high school teachers conducted by the West Chester Area Education Association, the district’s teachers’ union, reveals that teachers have some reservations.

Of the teachers surveyed:

• 65% said they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the schedule in general;
• 77% are concerned or very concerned about classes with unique course structures (i.e. science labs, music classes, child development, etc.)
• 64% are worried about the rotation.

They have also raised concerns around nonconforming class structures, the schedule rotation, loss of class time, and the proposed Lunch and Learn period.

Teacher reaction:

One Rustin teacher I spoke with voiced specific concerns about extending the Lunch & Learn Period. Currently this is an unstructured and largely unsupervised block of time students are supposed to use to catch up on homework, attend a club, ask a teacher a question, or grab lunch, if they haven’t already.

“Rustin teachers have been frustrated by the lack of structure and supervision of students since the Lunch & Learn period was first introduced,” she said. “The fact that the district wants to disrupt the entire schedule in order to take a component of our schedule that is not effective and make it longer does not make any sense to me.”

She also points out that to extend the Lunch and Learn period, the district has to take instructional time. “The new schedule results in far less time in classes but far more time in an unsupervised Lunch and Learn block,” she said. (She also mentions more half days in the schedule – ugh. Not getting into that today, but all these half days have to go.)

According to an internal communication shared with union members, union leaders requested more detail from the district in the way of planning and execution including a comprehensive plan outlining the implications to facilities, credit requirements, course structure, and staffing, as well as build-level committees to review and improve Lunch & Learn operations before it is expanded to a full hour.

They also reportedly requested a one-year implementation delay.

“If we think this won’t work, we’re absolutely not going to do it.”

Dr. David Christopher, WCASD Superintendent

The District’s response:

West Chester Superintendent Dr. David Christopher is aware some teachers have concerns, although he would not comment on the survey directly, noting questions over methodology and scope. Still, he said, he is working with the Union to address concerns.

“I’ve probably had ten meetings with teachers since the survey came in,” he said. And the discussions are already starting to have an effect. Dr. Christopher says concerns about classes with unique course structures, like science labs and Family and Consumer Science courses, have largely been worked out. Rotation is still a challenge, but could easily be solved by moving back to a seven rather than an eight-period day. A change Dr. Christopher is not ready to make, but an option nonetheless.

The Lunch and Learns, he admits, are a challenge.

“When we implemented the 30-minute Lunch and Learn, we didn’t do it well,” he said. “We clearly have to improve what that looks like.”

He is confident that it will happen, citing staff expertise and plenty of local examples to learn from (Unionville, Downingtown, and Lower Merion have all been utilizing Lunch & Learn periods for years.) This week at the School Board Finance Committee meeting, the Board approved a $400,000 request for Lunch and Learn furniture and equipment. Dr. Christopher said he hopes to have the first round of improvements implemented for the fall.

Still, he admits, there is much work to do.

“I’m going to acknowledge, we are not where we want to be,” he said, adding,“I think we’ve learned a lot from people since we made the [schedule] announcement.”

That said, he’s not ready to step on the brakes just yet either.

“We’ve made some really rapid progress,” he said. He is also working with Union leadership to nail down benchmarks and guidelines for potential implementation.

Next steps:

“I am shooting to have most of these things nailed down by October,” he said. If by then, benchmarks on things like cost and staffing are not met, the district may consider a pause.

“If we think this won’t work, we’re absolutely not going to do it. Guess who’s going to clean up? Me.” he said but noted the time to make that decision is next fall. “It’s not April.”

The District is going to continue to work with teachers and the Union to address concerns, a move in the right direction but not yet far enough for some staff. Several teachers, as well as sone parents and students, took their pleas for a delay to the School Board last week despite the Union’s official stance to hold off for now.

“As the official spokesperson for the Association, I will not be making any comments at Monday’s meeting,” said Union President Michele Curay Cramer in an email.

Parent information session

While there still has not been a decision to delay implemention, the district is working quickly to improve communication around the plan and give stakeholds a chance to voice concerns and address questions. In addition, to ongoing meetings with teacher groups, the district has now set up an online information session for parents.

“We’ve heard your feedback and understand the importance of creating space to share more about the proposed high school schedule,” Dr. Christopher wrote in an email to families. “To that end, I’d like to invite you to an online information… where we will take a deeper dive into the why behind this proposed change.”

The online information session is scheduled for Wednesday, May 7 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. This will be followed by a high school-specific Q&A night the following week.  If you are interested in attending the informational session, you can register at the link above. 

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This story was part of a longer West Chester newsletter featuring all the news and events of the week. Curious what else is going on? Subscribe now to get the full story. New issues come out on Fridays!