"I see a difference in the quality of the relationships between teachers and students because, since a particular class meets every other day, a teacher is now working with 60 students each day instead of 120," he told the Board of Education at its Oct. 21 meeting.
Previously, classes had met for 42 minutes per period.
BHS senior Mitch Fenton, the student representative to the school board, said in a recent interview that he enjoys the block scheduling because it allowed for additional small group work and lab time.
"There was a lot of fear about 83 minutes for classes," Dr. Luizzi said. "But students are now finding that because they can engage in studying a subject for a longer period of time the days go by even faster."
Veronica LeDuc, a chemistry and physics instructor who teaches both honors and regular academic classes, said in a phone interview that she has found it to be "very beneficial."
"I have been teaching a long time and was used to 42 minutes for classes," she said. "I wondered how much students could absorb over a longer period of time.
"However, that has not been an issue," Ms. LeDuc said. "I give them a break to walk around twice during the class, and it really has been more an issue of me planning the appropriate amount of work for the class and providing good activities."
"The teachers are working with each other more and developing common assessments," Dr. Luizzi said, noting that the block scheduling enables teachers to have more collaboration time.
"You don't have to wait for the lab day to do the lab experiments," Ms. LeDuc said regarding he additional options that the new format has provided.
She said that, thus far, students have been diligent about completing homework projects on schedule and that she and other teachers have placed folders outside of their classrooms with materials for students that missed a class because they were absent.
"We're meeting our goals even better than I had hoped," Dr. Luizzi told the Board of Education.