Enloe High switching to block schedule, skipping lunch break is out

Hard-charging students at Enloe High School will soon no longer have to decide between having lunch or taking another class to boost their grades.

In August, Enloe will become the last high school in the Wake County school system to move to the block schedule, in which students take fewer, but longer, classes each day. The schedule change is expected to end the long-standing Enloe tradition of students at the academically competitive school forgoing lunch to squeeze in more classes.

About 200 of Enloe’s 2,517 students skip lunch to take eight courses a school year. The new schedule will allow Enloe students both to take eight courses and have a lunch period that can’t be dropped.

“We feel like kids need a break during the school day to be at their best and to give their all,” Enloe Principal Scott Lyons said.

The change could also address the staffing challenges Enloe faces in keeping teachers who are used to working under a block schedule.

John Turlington, 17, a junior, said he looks forward to having lunch again. Turlington, the sports editor of Enloe’s student newspaper, gives up his lunch period to take an advanced journalism class.

“Enloe is full of a lot of overachieving students, and students want to get as many credits as they can and be efficient as they can about it,” Turlington said.

Every other high school in the district switched in 2003 to a block schedule in which students take four 90-minute classes a day. In contrast, most Enloe students take seven 46-minute classes per day.

Most Wake high schools use the 4x4 block schedule. Students take the same four courses every day, allowing them to complete a yearlong class in a semester. Students take a new set of four courses the next semester.

Enloe will join a few Wake high schools in using the A/B block schedule. Students alternate between four classes on “A” days and four different classes on “B” days over the entire school year.

Enloe’s school day will shrink by 20 minutes because students won’t change classes as often.

Enloe has long resisted efforts to give up the seven-period day, with parents feeling students benefited more from that traditional schedule. In 2011, a proposal to switch Enloe to a block schedule was dropped after 65 percent of the faculty voted against the change.

But in December, 62 percent of Enloe’s School Improvement Team voted to switch to the A/B schedule for the 2016-17 school year. The team consists of Enloe administrators, teachers, parents and students.

Lyons, who was not at Enloe in 2011, said the switch will occur after two years of research, including a survey of former Enloe teachers that showed most prefer the block schedule.

The A/B schedule will also benefit all students, according to Lyons. Advanced students can take extra courses without skipping lunch. Struggling students get additional opportunities to earn credit toward graduation.

“Students will benefit from having additional instructional time that will ensure student success,” said Calla Wright, an Enloe parent.

Hunter Buxton, an Enloe parent who had a student at the school in 2011, said the process is more transparent this time.

“Ultimately it’s going to be about how teachers manage the time that will be the proof in the pudding,” said Buxton, who now has two children at Enloe. “I feel comfortable with the reasoning behind the switch.”

The switch puts Enloe in line with the more than 90 percent of North Carolina’s public high schools that use a block schedule. There are exceptions, including Chapel Hill-Carrboro’s three comprehensive high schools and Raleigh Charter High School.

“We think students learn more in a course if they take the course every day as opposed to every other day or during a semester,” said Lisa Huddleston, principal of Raleigh Charter. “Our focus is on learning.”

Enloe, a magnet school located in East Raleigh, draws some of Wake County’s brightest students with intense competition waged to get top class ranks. Lyons said the change will ease the pressure on students who have to prepare each day for seven or more classes.

“Student stress has been higher, and that’s across the board in all schools, not just Enloe,” Lyons said. “But a contributing factor to that stress was the seven-period day.”

Lyons said the change will also ease pressure on teachers, who will have their planning time doubled to 90 minutes a day.

In a February report to an accreditation agency, reasons cited for the schedule change included high staff turnover rate and support from beginning teachers for the block schedule.

Teachers are being trained in how to keep students focused during the longer class periods.

Luke Buxton, 16, a junior, said the longer classes should give teachers more time to answer questions.

“I don’t feel I have adequate time to ask questions to teachers in the time you have,” said Luke, the son of Hunter Buxton. “You move into their room, get settled and then you’re out.”

Lyons said he’s confident the change will be successful, but it comes with some uncertainty for those who are accustomed to the seven-period day.

“I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but everybody is in the same boat, so we’ll hopefully adjust as a unit,” said Turlington, the Enloe junior.

This story was originally published April 20, 2016 at 6:12 PM with the headline "Enloe High switching to block schedule, skipping lunch break is out."