Art teacher Keith Opstad’s spider senses were tingling when he first began reviewing Westview’s total instructional minutes. There were big discrepancies between Westview’s numbers and other schools.

“The math just wasn’t adding up,” Opstad said.

According to PUSD’s instructional minutes bell schedule, Westview totals 66,111 annual minutes, far exceeding the state-mandated 64,800. These instructional minutes factor in class time, passing periods, and Wolverine Time.

The union also faced other issues when it came to scheduling. Their original plan was to have the school day run from 8:40 to 3:45, but the district added five minutes to the beginning of the day, pushing the start time earlier to 8:35.

“They just kind of snuck that in,” Opstad said. “But because it wasn’t more than 10 minutes it wasn’t a union issue.”

Opstad gathered all of this information and presented it to the union, comparing the length of Westview’s school days to high schools in other districts. He also proposed a new bell schedule that would shorten the school day.

In his proposal, the new bell schedule for the 2023-2024 school year would run from 8:30-3:30. According to Opstad, this would provide more time after school for extracurriculars and for teachers to tend to personal matters and appointments without the need to hire a substitute. He said that the current schedule disrupts students’ and staff’s work-life balance.

“I’m trying to present this in a logical way where it’s beneficial to all parties,” Opstad said.

After garnering support from the teachers’ union, Opstad presented his proposal to Learning Support Services.

Because Westview has had so many excess instructional minutes this year, Opstad also proposed that the Fridays following AP testing be reduced to minimum days. But, according to him, there were concerns about pacing because classes in term two already have fewer instructional time than those in term one, and additional minimum days would further skew this gap.

His next step is to conduct a survey among students and parents to gauge support for the new bell schedule and bring to light any conflicts that they had overlooked.

“I don’t want to put my words in their mouth,” Opstad said. “So that’s why I want to get a survey out to the parents, the students, and some of our community members. That way, if there are unforeseen circumstances, we can offer some creative solutions.”