By AUBREY HAWKE
Waltham Times Contributing Writer
Waltham High students and parents are pushing back against the restructuring of a weekly scheduled free period called Hawk Block.
The change to Hawk Block was first announced last Wednesday.
“Yesterday we met with staff to inform them that we would be halting the use of our Hawk Block to work on a reset to make the period more productive. With this change, we will launch a Wednesday Advisory period. During this Advisory period, we will work with students in goal setting, academic counseling, exploring, and reflecting on themselves as learners. We plan to relaunch our Advisory on November 20, with a new set of expectations that we will explain to students during grade assemblies next week,” Principal Darrell Braggs wrote in an email sent Wednesday, Nov. 6.
Braggs in a subsequent email to students and their families clarified that “Hawk Block is not being taken away” but rather “being restructured.”
At the biweekly School Committee meeting last Wednesday, student representative Alexander Tapia spoke about students’ reactions to this change.
“Some students are upset about the recent changes that have removed Hawk Block because now it is more difficult for students to make up missed work and quizzes and what not or just get general help for content. We understand that some students could have used Hawk Block correctly but they chose not to, but most would prefer to keep it because it was beneficial to the students who actually used it to get help with class content,” Tapia said.
Tapia pointed to a student-initiated online petition against the Hawk Block changes.
Students, parents speak against Hawk Block change
The online petition, created last Wednesday, already has more than 800 signatures
“Hawk Block has been an essential part of our school days, when they changed the schedule we saw issues rise. When they shortened it we saw more. Now we are confined to our homerooms, unable to seek educational aid from our curriculum teachers; we are treated like prisoners in lockdown. Help us push back and restore the Hawk Block we had, for our future and the future of the next classes to come. This cycle will not end until we make it end,” reads the petition statement, which was created by two Waltham High School students.
A parent of a 10th-grader wrote on the petition that her daughter “depends on Hawk Block to connect with teachers on tough subjects like her AP engineering class and others in order to maintain the grades she’ll need to be accepted into the college of her choice. This is essential to her and many others like her. Especially, as she participates in both the volleyball and tennis team, Hawk Block gives students like [her] a time during the school day to meet with teachers and work on projects that can be tough with after school activities.”
The parent continued, writing: “This program is critical to those trying to enhance their educational experience and pursue their college dreams,” and said canceling Hawk Block “is a detriment to those students who want to learn and believe in the power of education.”
Another commenter wrote “students need this time to connect with teachers. My son used it frequently and I expect my daughter, an incoming student, will need it as well.”
School Committee member Elizabeth AlJammal requested that Braggs attend the next School Committee meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. on Nov. 20, at 617 Lexington St., to discuss the Hawk Block change.
High school details changes ahead
Braggs and the high school’s four assistant principals on Friday, Nov. 8, emailed the high school community a letter providing additional details on how Hawk Block is changing and why it is changing.
They also used the Nov. 8 letter to acknowledge that their initial communication regarding Hawk Block was “not timely, nor did it effectively explain the rationale for this restructuring.”
In the follow-up Nov. 8 email, they wrote that “Hawk Block is not being taken away. This time in the schedule is being restructured in order to ensure that every student is thoughtfully scheduled into a space and connected to an educator who will work with them to create an academic plan for how to use this time.”
They explained that Hawk Block, a period of time scheduled into the schedule on most Wednesdays during the school year, is intended for “support, extension and enrichment.”
They also explained that the school created Hawk Block to “provide a flexibly-scheduled time during the school day for staff to connect with students for extra help, reassessment time, targeted interventions, individualized support, group meetings, enrichment and other events that usually occur outside of school hours.”
However, many students are not using the block for its intended purposes, they said, writing that “While many students were in spaces learning and getting support, many were not. Students have been roaming hallways or entering classrooms they were not signed into. They were unaccounted for, and at times not safe.”
They noted, too, that 66% of students who in recent weeks used Hawk Block for enrichment opportunities in the PE, Health and Wellness spaces are failing one or more of their academic core classes and should have been getting extra support in academic areas instead.
“Over the next several weeks, we will work to rectify these concerns and establish a new procedure for the way in which students are assigned as well as identifying tiered support interventions for students who need it,” the administrators wrote.
They said the school will have advisory periods on Nov. 20 and Dec. 4th “in order to reset norms and support students.”
“During this time, students will engage in academic conferencing including a reflection of Q1 grades and goal setting for Q2 and beyond,” they wrote. “It is our goal that on December 18th we are able to roll out the restructured Hawk Block which will ensure that every student is assigned to a space for support, extension, or enrichment, and this will include opportunities for students to make-up missed assessments.”
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