Alamogordo High School principal George Heaton spoke to the APS Board of Education on Tuesday evening about ongoing discussions about a new class schedule for the 2015-2016 school year.

The committee is composed of three parents, two students and 11 faculty members from AHS.

"I think I have a very good cross section," said Heaton. "The parents are going out and talking to other parents. I had another faculty member ask to join but it'll get too large to function."

The committee was put together after Heaton started looking at how many students missed a particular class when they were in extra curricular activities that required them to be pulled out of the classroom.

"If they happen to miss two days and they are both even days then they miss all that week except for the make-up day on Friday and that's if we have school on that Friday," he said. "For example, a soccer or tennis player with a season occurring on Tuesdays and Thursdays they don't see the teacher at all that week until Friday and if there's no school on Friday, they don't see the teacher at all."

The other issue Heaton said he looked at was linear type classes, such as math classes and some science classes.

"Those teachers really want to see their kids everyday because they're building on what was taught the day before," he said. "One thing that occurs, because they don't see them but every other day, is a larger homework assignment than what they really need to try to fill in missing of that day and so those classes struggle."

Heaton said the committee is looking at a list of 10 things the new schedule would need to achieve with the biggest being consistency, which is hard to achieve in AHS's current block schedule.

One of the two scheduling options the committee is looking at is a schedule that has two day block periods and on the other three days students would go to all seven periods. The other is a schedule of seven periods each day with the idea to have a 58 minute block in there where students can still get activities done.

"It's the same with the block (schedule), everything is still on the table," Heaton said. "The committee is leaning towards those first two right now though."

Heaton said he chose to include staff and parents in the committee because he wanted all parties involved to have a voice.

"Because of many issues, the federal government is more involved and has more voice than what it should be at the state level," he said. "We are working with the community's most precious possession, their children, and so there should be a voice with the people that are instructing those children and the parents of those children."

One issue with changing the schedule that Heaton discussed with board members is changing the credit hours AHS requires its students to earn in order to graduate. Currently AHS requires 26 credits, while the state only requires 24 credits to graduate.

"If we go to a seven period day, I think we should go to 24 credits," Heaton said. "I would say over 30 to 40 percent of schools in the state are at 24. There are some at 24.5, 25 and there are others at 26 up to 29. To add credits, you're actually just adding more electives on top of what the state requires."

If there is a change for next year's schedule, Heaton said it needs to be brought to the Board of Education as early as the end of this semester so AHS can start building the course catalog and the matrix.

"If we're ready, we don't want to put together an unprepared package," he said. "If we can put something together that we think is solid, we'll bring it to the board as early as November or December. If we don't feel we're prepared, it'll go into the year after that."

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