Houlka Attendance Center set for a schedule shake-up next year

HOULKA, Miss. (WCBI) – The school year is wrapping up at Houlka Attendance Center, but plans for the upcoming school are already in the works.

A new bell schedule will be ringing into the next school year.

The school plans to switch to a hybrid block schedule.

Houlka Attendance Center says the goal is to make learning better as a whole.

The principal says the school will have a new look for the 2018-2019 school year, and the changes will be beneficial to students and community.

“I constantly heard, ‘We don’t have enough time. We don’t have enough time to prepare students for state assessments.’ So, we immediately began working on how to have a solution to that problem and this is where we’re at and we’re very excited about it,” Houlka Attendance Center Principal Anthony Golding.

The idea for the new schedule came out of a teachers’ workshop.

Golding says the new schedule will give students 100 minutes of instruction in state tested areas and bring in more electives for students.

“It’s going to better prepare them for the state tested areas, along with the new electives, but not only that, this is going to open our students up to taking dual credit classes, vocational classes, subject area test remediation classes. It’s things that they really need that we currently don’t have the time for in our school day.”

Melinda Kopp teachers one of those state tested area classes.

She says when students come in, they’re always at a dead run, working hard to try to get everything done in 50 minutes.

“Sometimes, I feel like we don’t go into depth as much as we need to. Some of the students, may need a little more instruction on some of the things. Some students need to move on and we really don’t have time to do that, so having this extended class period, having these block class periods, will allow me to do just that.”

“This is only going to amount to about 30 extra minutes for students on campus and teachers are still going to be arriving and leaving at the same time they currently do. We’re just utilizing our time to its fullest potential,” says Golding.

Superintendent Dr. Betsy Collums says it will also benefit the elementary grades, exposing them to an extra 50 minutes of daily instruction.

“The teachers have time to plan extra programs and things that the children can participate in, such as maybe a Christmas program, or other programs around the holidays, or just programs to show things that they’re learning. They can also bring in more projects.”