12/11/13

Dear Hereford High School Students and Parents,

In an effort to provide more access and opportunity for students to best utilize our teaching staff, Baltimore County Public Schools is implementing new class schedule options for high schools. All high schools are asked to offer eight credits to students on a year-round basis. Each high school has a choice regarding which design of an eight credit schedule to implement, and we at Hereford High School have chosen the four period Block A/B day for the 2014-2015 school-year.

As you may realize, we currently run a hybrid semesterized and A/B four period (Block) day schedule. Nearly all of the Advanced Placement and many other courses are run on the A/B day rotation already.

This schedule would maintain the same daily routine already established at Hereford High School and preserve the Enrichment Hour. The difference would be that the students would attend four different classes on A and B days. The benefits and challenges to this schedule were presented and discussed at the November 13th PTSA meeting and to students in an enrichment hour session in the library; additionally, feedback has been received from the faculty.

Benefits of this schedule include:

• Increased time to complete homework
• More balanced classes
• Easier to add/drop classes
• Increased time to recover grades and make up for cancelled school days.
• Core subjects, such as English, Math, and Foreign Language all year.

To address some common misconceptions; the nightly homework allocation will not increase, and the Advanced Placement offerings will not decrease. The 20 year tradition of including the Enrichment Hour in the school day will continue, and the Internship/Dual Enrollment program will remain in place.

We will continue to work to ensure that all individual students are able to reach their potential and enjoy the traditionally rich academic environment at Hereford High School. We welcome your continued feedback and will endeavor to keep you informed of any further pertinent information.

If you would like more information about the high school scheduling evaluation and recommendations, please visit the school system website at www.bcps.org and look under the “What’s Happening” section and click the High School’s Schedules Evaluations and Recommendations link.

Sincerely,

Andrew Last