Presenter details Kinnelon School District plan to change middle-school master schedule

A presenter for the Kinnelon School District outlined planned changes to the middle-school master schedule for the 2024–25 school year at a public information meeting this evening, saying the adjustments are intended to improve teacher collaboration, expand supports for special-education students and broaden enrichment options.

The presenter said the district will standardize many classes to about 50 minutes — up from many current 40-minute periods — and will no longer require some subjects (math and language arts) to run as contiguous hour-long blocks. “For people that are used to our schedule, it's going to be as easy to navigate, perhaps even a little bit more,” the presenter said, adding the change is intended to give teachers time to team-teach and coordinate across grade levels.

The new schedule adds a midday POLT (custom option learning time) block paired with lunch to host music, small-group lessons, enrichment and other options. The presenter described POLT as an opportunity to widen choices, saying band and choir will still be available and that the district is exploring a public-speaking option for students who do not participate in music ensembles.

Special-education services will be affected by the revision: the presenter explained the district currently operates self-contained, resource and in-class support placements and that the proposed schedule will make a middle-stage pull-out resource option more feasible for science and social studies. That change is intended to allow more targeted pull-out support while keeping other students in mainstream classes.

On world language, the district plans to expose sixth graders to half a year of Spanish and half a year of French and then let students choose which language to pursue in seventh and eighth grades. The presenter said the plan was developed with the world-language supervisor so that students who take additional world-language enrichment in middle school can enter high school at a higher placement level.

The presentation also announced a Chromebook Repair Academy as a career-training option and confirmed existing cycles — robotics, computer programming and personal finance — will remain part of sixth through eighth grade programming.

Several residents asked questions. One parent raised a concern that shortening math and language-arts blocks from a contiguous hour to shorter periods might reduce instructional time; the presenter responded that the district has tested the model and believes teachers will still be able to cover required standards and provide differentiated instruction. “We can cover all the things we currently cover in our language arts and math curriculum,” the presenter said.

Another parent asked whether full-period options are chosen daily or for a marking period; the presenter said students will commit for a marking period or semester and that choices will be collected via a Google form. The presenter said the district will post the presentation and the recording after the meeting and that families can expect selection materials before the end of the school year, likely in June.

Next steps: the district will post the materials and send a Google form to families with choices and instructions; implementation details such as exact enrollments and exception cases will be determined by demand and staffing during the scheduling process.