Split Shifts Eyed For Junior Highs During 1970-71-72

ffi Moming and afternoon split I shifts in 1970-71 and at least the Ifirst semester of 1971-72 at Ann I A r b o r ' s f our junior high I schools were unanimously recommended to the Board of Education yesterday by the schools' four principáis. The principáis said they preferred the split shifts to the extreme overcrowding and cons e q u e n t discipline problems expected this fall. No decisions on the junior high schedule were made by the school board last night. In fact, the trustees will have to choose - probably next Wednesday - between the principáis' recommendation and that of School Supt. W. Scott Westerman Jr., who f a vors a staggered shift over a split shift. Westernman told the board either a staggered or split shift must be adopted, or else crowded conditions will créate discipline problems "that will really be out of our control." But he said he does not recommend the split shift because of the "family disruptions" that would occur. A split shift, like that instituted at Pioneer High School during the 1968-69 school year, would have half the students attend classes from perhaps 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., the other half from 1:10 to 6:10 p.m. - -" A staggered schedule, on the other hand, would have the early group in school from 8:05 a.m. to 1:45 p.m., and the late group from 9:45 a.m. to 3:25 p.m. This September, each junior high school is expected to have more than 1,200 students. Each was originally designed for less than 1,000. The fifth junior high school, now under construction at Nixon and Bluett Eds., is not expected to be ready for OCCU-i pancy, and thus help solve the overcrowding p r o 1 e m , until February of 1972. Slauson Junior High Principal Roland J. Lehker told the trustees he and his colleagues 1 recommend the split shift "with I some reluctante," knowing the inconvenience it would cause. But he called the split shift the best thing to do "under real emergency copditions." A smaller student body under the split shift would help counteract the "impersonalization" in a big school which leads to discipline problems, Lehker said. Several people discussed the probable problems of student i hunger and weariness if a split shift were instituted, and said it might be more of a problem for junior high age students than high school people. The problem of children being on the streets after dark in the winter also was mentioned. A member of the Slauson Junior High Faculty said the faculty had yoted 57 in favor, 1 against and 2 absentions for a split shift at Slauson in the fall as the "lesser of two evils." The Slauson faculty would prefer the early shift from 7 a.m. to noon and the later shift from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m., however, so the students wouldn't have to be in school so late in the afternoon, she said. The lunch period would be eliminated under the split shift. The schedule would meet the state requirements for length of the school day, however. A ri o t h e r recommendation made by the principáis yesterday was for elimination of the homerooms at the junior highs. The men said the homeroom "has become a holding unit opposite the lunch period with questionable educational value." They said they recommend its elimination for more constructive use of teacher time and better utilization of that portion of the school day.