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Schedule Imperils Butler High's Literary Magazine: Adviser, Students Say New Class Scheme Won't Give Them Enough Time

Posted on: Sunday, 11 June 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Lindsay Pollard, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Jun. 11--Caitlin Meeks and Hannah Love wanted the chance to be editor-in-chief of Pawprint this fall. The Butler High juniors had worked toward the goal since they were freshmen.

Now it might not happen.

Meeks and Love said Pawprint, Butler's literary magazine, is in danger of extinction because of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' new "4x4 hybrid" schedule, in which most classes will be conducted in one semester. The magazine is currently produced during adviser Barbara Everitt's creative writing class.

Under the current "A day/B day" schedule, students have 90 alternating days in a particular class.

Everitt said the magazine is "too big a nut to crack in one semester."

Love said the staff accepts submissions from students outside the class and from faculty members. The class uses the first semester to organize, plan and collect submissions.

Everitt said her students are split on whether to produce a magazine next school year. Some students said submissions and production should be contained to the class. Others say they won't have enough time to produce a book at all.

But most agree, no matter what they decide, Pawprint as it exists will cease.

"Without the book," Love said, "there's really no point for the class."

But Bill Anderson said that's not the case.

Anderson is CMS' assistant superintendent for high schools, curriculum and instruction. He said students still will be given 90 days to complete coursework.

Principal Joel Ritchie agrees.

Ritchie said he doesn't know why the magazine would reduce content or quality.

"It should do just as well, if not better, because it's a concentrated 90 days," he said. "If we went from 90 days to 45 days, then I could see (students') concern."

Ritchie said some electives, such as drama and yearbook, need to remain on the "A day/B day" system. Their production schedules last all year.

He also said those courses are more difficult to fit in class schedules, so Butler's trying to keep them to a minimum.

"If you want to take an AP (Advanced Placement) course, now you have to take two," he said. Since yearlong classes are every other school day, students would need a course for alternate days.

Everitt said her students need a year for production, too. They also need time for the creative process.

"Writers need time to digest," Everitt said. "I agree with Mr. Ritchie; a magazine is possible in a semester. But it won't be the caliber of Pawprint."

Ritchie said Butler's administration is willing to review the schedule after one year to see which classes work best under "4x4" and "A day/B day."

What a '4x4 Hybrid' Means to Students

Beginning in August, many CMS high school students will take four classes during the first semester. They will take four new classes during the second. But Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and certain elective courses will remain on CMS' current schedule of alternating days, called "A day/B day."

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)

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