Staff to vote on office hours bell schedule this week

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This is one of the proposed bell schedules that eligible certificated staff will vote on this week.

Update, Friday, April 8 — The proposed bell schedule that includes two periods of office hours on both block days passed for the 2022-2023 school year; it received 74% of the vote and 93% of staff voted. Next spring, staff will need to vote again to make the bell schedule permanent.

Update, Wednesday, April 6 — The previous vote for the proposed bell schedules was postponed for the second time due to an error in the voting system. The option to remain with the current bell schedule was not included in the voting options, causing all previous votes to be thrown out. The new voting date has been changed to April 7 and April 8.

This week, on April 5 and April 6, eligible certificated staff — teachers and counselors — will vote on one of two proposed bell schedules with a new class period: Blackhawk Hour, also known as office hours. 

One of the proposed bell schedules includes two periods of office hours on both block days, whereas the other proposed bell schedule includes one period of office hours on Thursdays. Eligible voters can also vote against the proposed bell schedules as well.

If one of the proposed bell schedules reaches 67% of votes, it will be in effect for the upcoming school year. If neither of the proposed bell schedules reaches the designated percentage, the one that receives the majority of votes will require a secondary vote by April 15 to pass.

Say a student has a lot of anxiety […], they have enrichment classes to […] help them cool down.

— Pablo Aguiar ‘24

During the spring of the 2020-2021 school year, a discussion of the possible implementation of office hours began.

This eventually led to an Office Hours Exploration Committee being created for La Quinta High. Their purpose was to discuss and view other schools’ models of office hours in order to determine how successful it is and possibly implement a similar model into our own bell schedule. 

Multiple groups of both students and staff visited various schools to view their model of office hours. In this case, Paul Miller, a CP and IB HL Biology teacher, visited Palm Desert High School in late January.

Paul Miller, who teaches CP and IB HL Biology, is one of the teachers who observed PDHS’ implementation of office hours.
William Franklin

“With the way they’ve got it set up for their [Palm Desert’s] campus, it does look very successful. I think there’s going to be some tweaks necessary for it to work as well here,” Miller said.

Miller also addressed some of the issues Palm Desert’s office hours model would have if it were used for the La Quinta campus. Due to LQHS’ larger campus size, the staff will struggle to make sure all students are attending classes during this period.

Despite the issues present, Miller still has an overwhelmingly positive opinion of office hours.

“I’m all for it. Office hours are ideal because now students don’t have to stay after school or come in early to make up work, and I don’t have to be here at lunch too often,” Miller said. 

In addition to a new bell schedule, if office hours are implemented, La Quinta students can also look forward to a new app — designed by a PDHS teacher — that can be used on phones or Chromebooks to help students and teachers schedule their office hours. 

This new app will help students choose where to go or help them find out where they need to go if they’ve been requested to visit a teacher.

English Teacher Stephanie Smith also visited PDHS’ campus to observe how they manage office hours in their schedule.
William Franklin

“You can scroll through and look at all your teachers and see what they’re offering and choose accordingly. Then, you can either sign up or teachers can invite you, and the app helps organize it all,” Stephanie Smith, an English CP teacher, said.

The app was originally implemented to help teachers and students with office hours over in Palm Desert High School. In order to help out at our school, the current app will be modified to fit La Quinta High School.

As for students who don’t need to catch up on work, enrichment opportunities will be offered. In the Palm Desert office hours model, students were able to use their office hours to visit a mental health counselor. 

“Say a student has a lot of anxiety from all the work that they’re doing, they have enrichment classes to help with anxiety and to help them cool down,” said Pablo Aguiar ‘24, a student who visited Palm Desert to view their office hours model. 

Office hours also aim to help students in sports or other extracurricular activities.

 “Sometimes I don’t have enough time to finish my assignments, so having time in office hours to get help and to work will really help,” Aguiar ‘24 said.