Nearly a month into the new school year, the Perry School District has gotten to see how some new systems are working out so far.

One of the big changes at the high school is that they’ve changed to a block schedule more akin to classes at the college level. Individual classes only meet three days a week, but for extended time. Superintendent Clark Wicks sees lots of positives with the block scheduling, including getting students more prepared for college classes, a reduction in the number of study halls, and the ability for students to get help directly from the teacher during the extended class time. As far as implementation of the new schedule, Wicks says it’s been a smooth transition, largely thanks to the teachers and staff.

“I think the preparation that has taken place with those high school teachers and high school staff have made the big difference, because you have to have a different teaching approach. You just can’t give one lesson and then that’s going to be it. It’s one lesson, some time to get some hands on work, some remediation help, and all that has to be infused into that longer block of learning. So it’s going well, but still I’m sure there’s some bugs to work out.”

One other new thing in the District is the middle school moving to standards-based grading instead of letter grading. Principal Shaun Kruger told the School Board at the recent meeting, the change to the 4-point scale has been handled well so far, with only minor hiccups on the way. To learn more about the year so far at Perry schools, listen to Tuesday’s Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.