The Drastically Reduce Weekend Homework petition on Change.org has drawn attention to student concerns regarding the new PHS bell schedule. Proponents have expressed anger and feel as though their trust has been violated by the administration.

After four Mondays on the new schedule, a PHS student created the petition to “help the student body and uncover the imbalances inherent with the current administration.”

The petition was published Sunday Sep. 21 and currently has over 200 signatures. Proponents are required to provide a name, email and address in order to sign the petition.

TPH has gathered input and information from students, administration and faculty in order to clear up misconceptions about alleged promises made in regards to the new bell schedule.

According to the June 11, 2014 official Piedmont Unified School District board meeting minutes, the definitive goals of the new schedule are to:

• reduce student stress
• optimize student learning through a predictable rotation of days
• provide more opportunities for sleep
• increase collaboration time for teachers
• offer more tutorial periods

Supporters of the petition believe that the administration has failed to meet the goal of reducing student stress.

This revolves around the belief that students were promised less homework on weekends and exam-free Mondays.

The petition states:

“The administration last year guaranteed the student body that teachers would minimize homework and exams on now-dreaded Mondays.”

The belief that the staff promised exam-free Mondays stems from petitioners’ misinterpretation of the June 11 board meeting agenda minutes, which states:

“There is concern that the Monday ‘anchor day’ when all periods meet will be a test day and result in an overload for students. The staff agreed that it will not be a test day…”

However, agenda minutes outline topics of discussion for school board meetings. They are not concrete accounts of decisions made during the meetings, Daniels said.

In an email sent to students on May 19, titled Five-Day Bell Schedule Pilot for 14-15 Update, Principal Brent Daniels wrote:

“Work will be done on-site to keep Mondays from becoming a widespread ‘testing day.’”

There were no explicit guarantees of test-free Mondays, rather acknowledgment that the faculty recognized potential for overload and would work to reduce overlap, Daniels said.

In addition, economics teacher Gabrielle Kashani, who was present at the June 11 board meeting, said quizzes were never discussed at the meeting— only tests.

“I see those as being two different things in terms of the commitment or the amount of time it take to prepare for it,” Kashani said.

As well as exam-free Mondays, students expressed belief that teachers promised to decrease weekend homework.

“All teachers have agreed to in fact lighten their homework loads over the weekends because of this schedule change,” former ASB president Cole Becker wrote in a Facebook comment on a previous petition against the new schedule last May.

However, Daniels said there was never a focus around limiting homework.

“This conversation about homework has been an on-going conversation prior to the bell schedule,” Daniels said. “I think it’s very important as we move forward as a school that we try to really define what the problem is.”

Petitioners argue that the new schedule was implemented without student input. However last spring, the administration consulted two student groups, consisting of freshmen and sophomores, regarding possible new schedules.

Daniels said the faculty is continuing to discuss how to best utilize the new schedule. Although he has not responded to petitioners through email, he and other faculty members encourage students to meet face-to-face and voice their concerns surrounding the current schedule.

“We’re accessible and we actually want to have these conversations,” Daniels said. “These open door policies have always been in place. If they’d like to talk to us, they can.”