Schools
Extra Instructional Time in FRHSD is 'Beneficial', Students Say
Students and Board of Education members give their opinion on added instructional time at FRHSD Board of Education meeting.
Three weeks into a new school year, Freehold Regional High School students are beginning to see the benefits of more classroom time.
Earlier this year, the FRHSD Board of Education unveiled a new bell schedule that would give students two to three more minutes of class time in each period. During Monday night’s Board of Education meeting at Freehold Township High School, present board members and students reflected on the benefits they are seeing from the new bell schedule.
“By adding five minutes to a school day and re-purposing 11 non-instructional minutes students benefit by 16 additional minutes of instruction in the classroom,” FRHSD Board of Education President Heshy Moses said. “That may not seem like a lot, but when you take it over a years time your talking about 190 some hours of additional instruction which comes out to basically a month of teaching that the district saves money on.”
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Prior to the school year, students spoke at summer FRHSD Board of Education meetings about their concerns of cutting down homeroom and passing time. However, now that school is in session students are beginning to come around to the idea of more class time.
“As a current student, I can say that we enjoyed homeroom because we were able to get the homework done that was supposed to be done at home completed in homeroom,” said Dave Sherman, Senior at Freehold Borough High School. “This year so far the extra two minutes now give me more time on my tests. I can now go over my test and make sure I have everything done with those extra minutes.”
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The additional class time was created by first period classes absorbing homeroom and reducing passing time. The past schedule had a five-minute homeroom period and a five-minute passing time between homeroom and first period. This new schedule eliminates those ten minutes and rolls them into added instructional time.
The additional minutes were strategically placed throughout the day so that students benefit from seeing more instructional time.
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