Gabi Kamran

Voices Editor

After much deliberation, the Milken administration has decided to postpone any conclusions regarding the proposed academic schedule change for the 2014-15 school year.

The new schedule format, introduced to the Milken community in early October, divided the school year into seven mods of 25 school days each, with only four subjects taught per mod in daily 80-minute blocks. In mid-October, it was announced that the schedule change would not be implemented during the 2014-15 school year. Discussions will resume after Thanksgiving break regarding any future application of the new schedule design.

While feedback from the parent and student body was taken into consideration, the decision was based primarily on the fact that that faculty did not feel prepared to implement the new schedule in the coming school year. An anonymous poll showed that 78% of the faculty supported the new schedule format, but 53% did not feel ready to implement the change. Many faculty members expressed the need for more training and familiarization with the new model before moving forward

“To use a football analogy, sometimes it’s not just a question of what plays you’re running, sometimes it’s a matter of how well you execute the plays,” Gary Weisserman, Head of School, said, “If our faculty doesn’t feel confident that they are prepared to teach in the way that the modular schedule would call for, then we should not go forward with it.”

The next step in the process will be to re-engage faculty, parents and students in learning and conversation regarding the possibility of a future schedule change. The administration’s primary focus will be to collect internal data by surveying parents and students in order to evaluate the current coarse load situation. From this information, administrators will isolate the issues present in the current schedule and determine the best possible way to deal with them.

Whether the modular schedule will be the format ultimately chosen for future implementation is yet to be determined. In ensuring that the new schedule design meets students’ academic, intellectual, and emotional needs without providing collateral damage, alternate schedule options will be considered during the process.

Next year’s academic schedule will be the same as this year’s, with the exception of a few possible minor tweaks.