District outlines proposals for nine-period day, expanded electives

Administrators in the Riverhead Central School District outlined their plan for the return of a nine-period day and the expansion of their course offerings in advance of this year’s upcoming budget proposal.

During Tuesday’s superintendent report, administrators from the high school and middle school presented the board of education with their plans for expanding opportunities for students in the 2022-23 school year. The changes were introduced as a part of the district’s months-long budget process, the first under the leadership of Superintendent Augustine Tornatore — under a plan which he has described as being “fiscally conservative” by using an influx of state and federal coronavirus relief funds. 

It will also be the first organized for the district under Acting Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations Faith Caglianone, a former Shoreham-Wading River School District business administrator who was hired after longtime district administrator and business official Sam Schneider was demoted and administratively reassigned pending an investigation into unspecified allegations by an employee.

Riverhead High School Principal Sean O’Hara proposed the high school return to the bell schedule that was in effect during the 2013-14 school year, which was the last school year before the district transitioned away from nine periods.

In 2014, the district cited the elimination of teaching positions, increased enrollment and a large number of students “sitting in study halls” as the reason for moving from a nine to eight period day. The change drew criticism from both students and parents at the time, who argued the removal of a class period did not allow sufficient time for electives and lunch breaks for students with full schedules.

In O’Hara’s proposal, seven of the eight periods would shorten from 47 minutes to 41 minutes each, which still fit the state’s requirements for a full-credit course. The first period would be 46 minutes long and allow time for students to hear the morning announcements.

He said the morning announcements were moved to a virtual format after the transition to eight periods. “What we have found is that not all students keep themselves informed with this format. So the morning announcements will help ensure that all students are kept abreast of important information and events that take place daily and weekly at our school,” O’Hara said.

The morning announcements would be produced and presented by students interested in broadcast and news, the principal said. The high school will propose offering “Blue Waves News,” the current news club, as a class next semester, he said.

“We have many students who are interested in broadcasting and who would love to have the opportunity to develop their skills and become a voice for our students in a broadcasting role,” he said.

The high school is also proposing 32 new elective courses across 12 different subject areas, including Intro to Theatre, Computer Repair, The Latin American Experience, Wall Street and Bioethics.

“Many of the courses proposed are in line with results from student, faculty and parents surveys that we’ve distributed,” O’Hara said.

High school electives will run based on student interest during the course selection process, which started this week. 

Another course, which is featured on the electives list, but O’Hara said would be for all freshman students to enroll in, is the Freshman Seminar. He said the course would cover “essential information that will prepare our students for success throughout their high school years and beyond.”

“Teachers who are interested in teaching the freshman seminar will have an opportunity to develop the curriculum for the course. But it will most definitely include important things such as goal-setting, problem-solving, decision-making, time management, full coverage of our code of conduct, study skills and note-taking skills, as well as financial literacy,” he said.

O’Hara also introduced the high school’s plans for “academies.” He explained that these would concentrate a student’s electives into particular areas for future career interests including business, law, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), the fine arts, medicine and future educators.

Riverhead Middle School Principal Stephen Hudson said each period in the middle school’s nine-period day will be 40 minutes, with the exception of the first period, which will be 43 minutes and “allows students to get their breakfast, go to their lockers and successfully get to class on time. We then continue with our morning announcements as well as our Pledge of Allegiance.”

Hudson said a nine-period day will allow students to participate in, and the school to offer, all the classes required by the state Department of Education and receive academic and student support, which he said is something currently lacking in the middle school. It will also allow the school to offer Library and Information Skills, which is a state requirement, but currently not offered.

The increased number of classes for a nine-period day and new electives will require approximately 12-15 new full-time teachers at the high school and 3-4 new full-time teachers at the middle school, according to Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Christine Tona. 

Trustee Christopher Dorr asked after the presentation if students will be required to enroll in the elective courses, since one of the primary reasons to remove the nine-period day was to decrease the amount of students taking study halls.

Superintendent Augustine Tornatore said these are questions that are being discussed by the administration and the guidance department.

“We know that in the history of the high school that those are some concerns,” he said. “We certainly want to ensure that those concerns are addressed and that we do reduce the amount of study halls.”

Trustee Colin Palmer commended the administration and the guidance department for creating a “broad range” of electives.

“Obviously the theater and classics person within me loves seeing the Ancient Greek Culture, the Intro to Theatre, the Dramatic Literature, but specifically jumping out at me was seeing Literature of Genocide, and Bioethics as well as Freshman Seminar,” Palmer said. “Usually courses are about the who, what, when, where and how. And these are courses that are about the why, which is kind of at the heart of education, and I’m just hoping to see even more of that in the future. I think that that’s a really great direction to be going in.”