While Statesboro High and Southeast Bulloch students will continue to take four classes per day in the a 4-by-4 block schedule, Portal Middle/High School is adopting a seven-period day.
      Fran Stephens, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning for grades 6-12, and Charles Wilson, assistant superintendent for business and finance, co-chaired the High School Scheduling Committee. The committee included school administrators, counselors, teachers and parents from all grade levels among its nearly 20 members.
      When the committee delivered the recommendation for the relatively small changes in block scheduling to the Board of Education in May, Portal Middle/High School was understood to be taking a different route. The board unanimously approved those changes.
      New Portal Principal Shawn Haralson is overseeing a shift to a seven-period day. Previously principal at Julia P. Bryant Elementary, he didn't officially become principal at Portal until July 1, but had worked on scheduling during the transition.
      In contrast to Statesboro High, which has 1,400 students in grades 9-12 and offers four full-years of pre-AP and AP courses in math, English, science and social studies, Portal Middle/High School has fewer than 450 students in grades 6-12 and no Advanced Placement courses.
      There, the interest was in putting the middle and high school grades on the same schedule and increasing the number of elective courses.
      "The reason we chose to go to the seven-period day is because, being such as small school, what we're trying to do academically is get everybody on the same page where we can cross-grade share ideas and share a little bit of curriculum and teaching," Haralson said.
      Block scheduling had aggravated the increase in class sizes at Portal and greatly restricted the number of electives, according to Haralson.
      "What happens in a small school is the number of electives considerably drop off to where there's only about three or four, and then class size for a small school would be enormous," he said. "By spreading it out in a seven-period day, the class sizes have been able to drop down to where they're much more manageable."
      With the seven-period day, Portal is introducing new electives in SAT preparation, journalism, drama, keyboarding and art, and looking at other possibilities. The number of possible electives in the schedule, Haralson said, increases from about four to 15.
      Portal students who want to take AP courses can theoretically do so by going to Statesboro High School for a portion of the day. Administrators say they are also exploring a "distance learning" approach whereby students can take part in classes by video or computer.
      Haralson and Statesboro High Principal Marty Waters met recently to talk about possibilities for shared classes in things such as JROTC and music, as well as AP courses.
      "We are working on that as we speak ... how we can cross-reference curriculum and have kids leaving us to go take classes at Statesboro High that would help them in college," Haralson said.