Controversy erupted  among Cal High students last year when school administrators announced the plan to implement a modified block schedule beginning this school year.

Recently, new plans for a modified block schedule have been unveiled for next year, but not at Cal.

Dougherty Valley High School’s plans to adopt a modified block schedule in the fall will make it the second high school in the district to incorporate block days.

Cal still has a full block schedule, while San Ramon Valley and Monte Vista high schools have traditional schedules.

Dougherty’s modified block schedule will consist of traditional days on Monday, Thursday and Friday starting at 7:31 and ending at 3:06.

Block days on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the same number of instructional minutes, will include an 88-minute A period on Tuesday. Block days will also include segments of 40 minutes designated as “access periods” that serves the same purpose as Cal’s tutorial.

Longer instructional periods allow teachers to delve deeper into course material, an ideal situation for providing in-depth instruction.

Dougherty is timing its modified block to coincide with the implementation of Common Core standards that will take effect next year.

These standards emphasize deeper understanding of core subjects, such as language arts and math, rather than memorization of facts.

“[The modified block is] designed in part to address student stress and increase student engagement,” said Terry Koehne, director of community relations for the San Ramon Valley Unified School District.

Rather than a transition into a full block schedule, the modified block will likely be there to stay at Dougherty, Koehne said.

It remains unknown whether the other three high schools in the district intend to make similar schedule modifications in the future.

“[The school district] has traditionally been flexible in allowing schools to choose their own schedules,” Koehne said.  “However, [it] would also be supportive of [Monte Vista and San Ramon Valley] exploring a modified block approach.”

Some teachers at Cal are skeptical of the proposed schedule change at Dougherty.

“You’ll have block days, regular schedule days, and teacher meeting days,” said math teacher Gary Triebwasser. “Anytime you have three schedules a week, it gets too busy.”

Students at Cal also express apprehension about the mixed schedule.

“I think that when you mix the two types of schedules, you lose the benefits of both,” said junior Marnie Lowe.

Lowe believes the modified block may not address student needs as well as other schedule types.

“One of the main problems I see with the modified block is that you don’t have consistency,” Lowe said.

Dougherty students seem to agree.

“All the teachers are advocating [the schedule] because they think it will be a stress reliever for the kids,” said junior Jessica Chang, “but a lot of the kids [at Dougherty] are saying that it won’t help.”