Despite more than a year of meetings, discussions, collaboration and revisions between the School Committee and BHS teachers, Barnstable High School will not be implementing a new schedule any time soon, Mr. Brent Jansen, co-chair of the scheduling committee, confirmed.

“The earliest year a new schedule could be put in place would be 2016,”  explained Jansen. He said the main reason why the schedule isn’t changing is because of how much time teachers need to implement a new schedule. He explained that the new schedule proposal lost School Committee support after a Dec. School Committee meeting where several BHS teachers advocated for more time to prepare courses and negotiate contract violations.

The proposed schedule was widely circulated this fall and work had begun by administrators to prepare for its implementation next year.  The School Committee and Barnstable Teachers Association couldn’t reach a consensus on contract implications that the schedule changes would create, according to BTA President Brooke Styche.

“The teachers association was more than willing to bargain the contract violations, but due to the tight timeline laid out by the School Committee  we could not reach an agreement that could be ratified by the membership,” she said.

Principal Patrick Clark said that although BHS isn’t moving forward with the schedule change, the school is still striving to be in compliance with the Mass Core standards.

“We’re in good shape,” Clark said, “but we need to move toward alignment with the requirements for the coming years.”

Beginning with the class of 2016, four credits of math are required to graduate BHS compared to the previous three credits required. Next year, students will not be mandated to take a physical education class every year, however, they will need to complete a wellness credit in order to graduate, compared to the previous personal development credit needed, Clark explained.

“Basically, we just changed the name from personal development to wellness,” explained Mrs. Maria Pierozzi, the Wellness department head, “We may have been the only school with personal development in the state.” Pierozzi said that the name was confusing and required an explanation; wellness is a more recognizable term.

Pierozzi said that in order to meet the state requirement that all students need to take physical education, each wellness course will incorporate movement time. For the 2014-2015 school year, the wellness courses will need its curriculum adjusted to meet these requirements.

Clark said that each revised wellness course will incorporate five elements: social and emotional well-being, school counseling, movement time, and healthy choices into the curriculum. He explained that these will be aligned with the major objectives being taught in the class. Clark made clear that if a student has already completed a personal development course, he or she meets the credit expectation for graduation.

Clark also said that BHS will be keeping extended TGA as a time for health, social and emotional well-being activities for next year, adjoined will a small volume of activity that will comply with the state law that mandates physical education. Pierozzi said that, pending weather conditions, there will be walks around the school during extended TGA sometime in March and late May.