Seventh Hour Added to Hartland High School

During Monday night’s Hartland Board of Education meeting, the school board ratified the agreement for the Hartland Education Association which included the addition of a seventh hour for students at Hartland High School. 

“The ramifications of this particular contract are that we’re lowering teacher class sizes down substantially,” Hartland High School principal Ben Mainka said. “Even though there are less minutes in every class period, which is certainly a con- the benefits are huge from a standpoint of the teachers being able to spend more individual time with each student.”

The average size class will be reduced from 35 students to 28 students per average class, according to Mainka. 

The 7-period day will go into effect starting the Fall of 2013 and although Mainka says it is still unclear exactly how the new day will look, the overall school day will not increase in length and the new class periods will be between 48-49 minutes long.

“There will be a few minutes taken from each hour,” Mainka said. “We’re looking at eight minutes less.”

Hartland teachers are already preparing for the new structure and Mainka says with the addition of the Common Core Standards, adding the extra hour now is a “logical time” since classroom instruction is already changing.

“The Common Core is really going to ask our teacher to do less stuff but to go deeper with the content and get kids to think differently and more dynamic,” Mainka said. “So what we’re doing in the classroom is going to be changing anyway.” 

Hartland Superintendent Janet Sifferman said the new schedule would offer flexibility and opportunities for students. 

“We have a lot of students who try to test out (of classes) to try to open up holes in their schedule, so we feel this might relieve a little bit that issue too,” Sifferman said. “And thank you to our staff because they’re always looking out for what’s best for our kids and they feel it’s a good opportunity for them.”