GBAPSD
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Students in the Green Bay Area Public School District spoke, and the district listened.
After years of studying the issue and getting feedback from students, GBAPS is looking to change the school day class schedule for high school students.
The district is prepared to present a proposal to the full school board Monday.
“Some of the things we heard from you were that you were interested in fewer transitions throughout the day. You were interested in having opportunities to take longer classes, in classes that were more college-type classes, including lab classes,” said David Johns, associate superintendent of continuous school improvement.
East High School currently operates on trimesters, while the other three schools run on semesters. Under the proposal, all four high schools (East, West, Southwest and Preble) would follow the same format of a seven-period school day.
“East is the only school on trimesters, so we’ve been a little different, and I think it will definitely be an adjustment, but if I can get more credits and get out of here a little earlier, I don’t see why not,” said Lily Rotter, a student at East.
Under the proposal, students would go to the same classes every single day instead of alternating. Traditional classes would be 50-minute periods, allowing for slightly longer instructional time.
The new block classes, for things like career and tech programs and lab classes, would be twice as long — 100 minutes in length — with built-in breaks.
Chanel Leopold is a senior at Preble High School. After hearing about the proposal, she said, “We wanted to have more time in classes, especially classes that have lots of materials in them, which we got. We also wanted to make sure we were all on the same schedules as a district, so if you wanted to take sign language at Southwest, you could do it.”
“I think that it’s just lot of different opportunities, really good opportunity, to make classes be the length that fits the material,” added Katie Hanson, a junior at East.
The district said, if approved, it will start with a manageable number of block classes and then look at increasing or decreasing, depending on the need.
The proposal will be presented to the board Monday. A vote on the issue will take place later this month.
If approved, the new class schedule will go into effect for the 2026-27 school year.
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