RADFORD, Va. – After months of back-and-forth discussions, Radford City Schools finally have a new bell schedule for the next school year.
10 News has continued to cover the ongoing conversation of bell schedules for Radford. At Wednesday night’s school board meeting, a decision was made.
Starting next school year, the high school and middle school will transition to a 7-block schedule each day of the week. One of the blocks on the schedule is designated for teachers to plan.
The elementary schools will have a regular schedule on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. On Thursdays, the elementary students will be dismissed early. During that period, teachers will get to have their planning time.
The bell schedule changes first became a topic of discussion when Superintendent Robert Graham heard from his teachers about not having enough planning time.
“Time has been something that we’re hearing from our teachers. That’s something we would really like to provide for them, so that was actually the main reason for the schedule changes,” Graham said.
Teachers stood in unison during Wednesday’s meeting to express their gratitude for all the work Graham and his staff have put in. Stacy Schwenk teaches at Belle Heth Elementary School. She spoke on behalf of her colleagues.
“We cannot thank you enough for supporting us as we are all striving to do what is best for our children we serve,” Schwenk said.
The job is not done yet as some of the school board members want to see something done to help working parents. Vice Chairperson of the board, Jody Ray, said the new schedule still starts later than currently which can be difficult for those who drive their kids to school.
“We’re still starting too late to drop their kids off for lack of a better way of describing it. I hope we can come up with something,” Ray said.
One of the other things the school board is asking the district to look into is having an early dismissal or late start one day for the high school so teachers can have more time to either plan or have meetings.
The school board unanimously approved the new schedule.