Study: A majority of Osbourn juniors favor taking fewer classes as seniors

Most of the juniors surveyed at Osbourn High School said they would be in favor of taking fewer classes their senior year.

Members of the Manassas City School Board recently posed the question to Osbourn Principal John Conti.

Conti surveyed the students and found that 77 percent of the 269 students who responded said they liked the idea.

Seniors currently have to take eight classes a day at school even if they have enough credits to graduate, Conti said.

Conti also took the survey to his staff and they came up with some advantages and disadvantages surrounding the concept.

Conti met with the school board Tuesday and presented the results of the survey.

If the idea of fewer classes for high school seniors takes hold, some students could attend as few as four classes a day, Conti said.

The survey showed that 25 percent of the students thought they would take four classes a day, 27 percent would take five classes a day, 32 percent figured they would take six classes a day while 17 percent thought they would be in school for seven classes a day in their senior year.

Math, drama, business, music art and physical education were among the classes student would forego if they could, the survey showed.

Benefits of allowing students time off is that they could work, take internships or enroll in early college courses.
A disadvantage is that students might take on too much, Conti said.

“They may work more hours than they can handle and still be successful at school,” Conti said.

Another disadvantage is that students might not do any of the things adults expect them to do.

“Some of the students may not be involved in what we would consider constructive things when they are not in school,” Conti said.

Allowing some students to leave early in the day could “alleviate” crowding in some classrooms at the school with 2,020 students, Conti said.
Reducing class sizes might allow some underclassmen to enroll in their choice of electives.

The study showed that some discipline and attendance issues could be resolved if students were not “forced” to take classes they “don’t need to graduate or don’t want to take.”

There would be some forethought required from freshmen entering the high school, Conti said.

“If students knew that when they were seniors there was a possibility that they would be in line to reduce the number of periods that they would be in school ... they might take a little bit more seriously the courses that are on their schedule earlier in their high school career,” he said.

Conti said other disadvantages of a shortened school day for seniors would include a loss of leadership in the student body, seniors who feel disconnected from the school and a negative impact on school performance.

Conti’s staff was also concerned that students who are not in school might lose the opportunity to “explore” areas that might become a “life passion.“

School Board member Curtis W. Wunderly questioned the concept.

“If we do something like this do we lose sight of our core mission or our reason for being, which is to prepare our students for the future and to educate them?” Wunderly said.

School board member Tim Demeria said when he was in high school he would have opted for four classes, but he wouldn’t have been motivated to do the right thing.

“I would have gone home and watched ‘General Hospital’,” he said. “If we did do this I would think that we’d have some sort of job requirement. I wouldn’t want the kids running free,” he said.

Manassas Bureau Chief Keith Walker can be reached at 703-369-6751.