SOUTH POINT - High school students circulated a petition opposing a schedule change for the 2004-05 school year.

The petition's organizer presented it to school board members on April 5.

Honors student Rachel Bentley read the petition aloud during the board's regular session. Superintendent Ken Cook and Treasurer Dan McDavid were not in attendance.

A possible schedule change for the upcoming school year had been discussed in mid-March when district administrators met with board members for a workshop according to the school board's president, Terry Blake.

Blake said he thinks a decision will be decided at an upcoming special meeting.

"I feel that we hire administrators to make decisions like that. I don't have an opinion either way, but I think what we will end up with will be satisfying to everybody," Blake said.

The blocked schedule in use now consists of four, one-and-one-half hour class periods daily. The proposed schedule could expand to seven classes daily with a classroom time of 45

minutes each.

Bentley listed twelve reasons and explanations on the petition that contained 193 names retrieved in a 24-hour period. "We could have gotten more, but we all had the same lunch, so probably 200 or more students were not given the opportunity to sign," she said.

The Rev. Bill Bentley, Rachel's father and a former math and science teacher himself, said he supports his daughter's endeavor to make a positive difference.

"This is a good leadership experience for her. My personal preference would be a modified block schedule, which would satisfy the best of both worlds and eliminate some of the problems of both systems," he said.

The 15-year-old sophomore provided an example of what she and other students feel about less classroom time using her fourth-block algebra class in a theoretical situation.

"Let's say the teacher decided to teach us what a logarithm to an exponential equation and vice-versa…we're not going to understand it that day and we're going be so confused the next day when she tries to teach us how to convert it that we'll never truly get it."

"Sure, we can probably fudge our way through it…but we'll retain nothing," she added.

The petition also cited additional stress for students, less time for extracurricular activities, and less time for elective classes such as fine arts, speech, military history, Spanish III & IV, home economics, gym and computers.

"If you have a track meet or color guard practice directly after school, you'll be up until midnight doing homework and studying," Bentley said.

Freshman Amanda Osborne said, "If we have five to seven glasses, I think grade averages will go down because we will get more homework."

Osborne also participates in track at school. "Our lockers our half the size of a regular locker and all of the required books for five to seven classes would not fit in the lockers–plus there's extra items like coats or gymbags."

Amanda's mother, Beth Osborne, supports keeping the current schedule intact. "I think it gives students more time if some of the children aren't grasping the information because they get more time to go over the material again."

Bently wants school personnel to know that the petition is not meant to be taken as a threat of student retaliation in the form of a walk-out or strike situation for students who are not serious about their education.

"There is a difference in standing up for a cause and being fanatic…We're doing this to try to change something; to try to fight for what we believe in and we have to go about that in a responsible and well-planned manner," Bentley said.

Additionally, Bentley's petition cites references about possible faculty issues to include: less class time for teaching, less time to prepare lesson plans and additional stress on guidance staff for reconfiguring the new school year's classes.

Middle school students currently participate in the seven-period schedule the high school students are opposing.

Sixth-grader Kayla Taylor said her 45-minute classtime is not enough for her. "There's not enough time in class to do our work and we end up having more homework… especially in science and social studies."

"We have four minutes to get to our lockers and there's no time to go to the restroom," she said.

A special board session has been set for April 22 at 7 p.m. at the middle school to discuss proposed schedule change.