ELECTIVE BLOCK

Office hours only work if a student can actually get to them. When extra help sits before school, at lunch, or after the last bell, the students who need it most are the ones with a bus to catch or a sibling to pick up. And any student who goes has to give up something else.

So we built the time into the schedule. During elective block, students can sit down with a teacher for real one-on-one help, and nothing graded is happening anywhere else in the building. Getting support costs a student nothing.

Students who don't need that time have somewhere good to be.

Debate. Back for a second year. Students compete against other East Bay schools, which means researching a resolution, building a case, preparing for the strongest version of the opposing argument, and defending it in front of judges.

Film studies and photography. New this year.

The block belongs to the students. Some of them will spend it working through something with a teacher, some will spend it in debate practice or behind a camera, and both are the right answer.