By James Lomuscio
Arena scheduling—a decades’ old process whereby Westport’s Staples High School students jam the cafeteria for two days to register for classes and teachers they want next year—ended Tuesday night with a 6 to 1 Board of Education vote.
Ellliott Landon: “You don’t always get what you want.” Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
Instead of entering the “arena,” which educators said has gotten out of hand and fraught with problems as Staples’ student body has swelled to around 1,800, students will register via computer effective this academic year.
Using the computer, they can pre-register from February through March, meet with their counselors and have their next year’s schedules set before school ends in June. The arena system, conversely, has had students and counselors scrambling to make schedule changes in late August, opponents said.
School Board Chairman Donald O’Day cast the only dissenting vote, arguing that arena scheduling should be improved rather than jettisoned. He also favored the face-to-face scheduling process, stressing that it is important for students to get the teachers they prefer.
“My view on arena is that it’s messy, it’s cumbersome and it needs to be tweaked around the edges,” said O’Day. “I think that it can be fixed.”
But John Dodig, Staples principal, and Elaine Schwartz, who heads guidance, painted a picture of it as archaic, especially in the computer age.
“Our best opinion is that it may have served its purpose at some point, but it’s time has passed,” said Dodig.
Schools Superintendent Elliott Landon noted that 13 years ago Gloria Rakovic, former Staples principal, suggested arena scheduling be discontinued, only to experience a groundswell of opposition from parents.
At a school board meting two weeks ago, Landon and board members heard objections from parents as well.
Some parents claimed that arena scheduling provides students additional opportunities to develop a personal connection with adults, to take courses with teachers they like and to avoid those they do not. It had also been argued that arena scheduling prepares students for college course selections.
Admitting that it was part of the culture, Landon first recommended that the board phase the program out over several years, allowing certain grades to take advantage of it.
That recommendation was amended by a suggestion from board member Michael McGovern who argued for a fully computerized system, “automated scheduling,” this year.
O’Day, for one, felt it was important for students to be able to choose their teachers, something others countered as a form of entitlement.
“It’s a good life experience,” Landon countered. “You don’t always get what you want when you want it.”
