Reaching for excellence
Program focuses on student success
Berl Tiskus
Polson High School students use CORE/Flex time to finish homework, play games, write papers or visit, while those who are flunking a class stay in the classroom to work with the teachers.
Berl Tiskus
A Polson High School student works on a paper, utilizing double screens as other students work in the background.
Berl Tiskus
Naima Crowl studies in the PHS library during CORE/Flex time.
Berl Tiskus
PHS students gather in the school library for social time, studying, using the computers, reading or catching up on homework.
Berl Tiskus
Polson High School Principal Rex Weltz points to a diagram including CORE/Flex, one of the components Polson High School is using to improve the school.
Berl Tiskus
Berl Tiskus
Berl Tiskus
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Although CORE/Flex sounds like a new exercise program, it’s really a way Polson High School is making itself a better school.
Core stands for Counting On Reaching Excellence, and flex stands for flexibility.
Implemented at the beginning of the 2013-14 school year, CORE/Flex is a systematic support system for learning, a way for students who have a D or an F in a class to spend 20 minutes, four days a week, with the teacher whose class they are flunking, according to PHS Principal Rex Weltz.
Weltz said he’s always asked teachers to work with kids before and after school and at lunch, but there were problems. Students couldn’t always get to school early, many work after school, and they need to eat at lunchtime.
“It wasn’t systematic,” Weltz said.
Now CORE/Flex is embedded in the schedule between second and third periods. Weltz talked to the students about cutting their passing period from five minutes to four minutes, and decreasing instruction time just a couple of minutes, to create the CORE/Flex time.
“In our first month, we cut the failure rate by approximately 50 percent,” Weltz said. “It’s a testament to the kids. They love CORE/Flex.”
The teachers were a harder nut to crack since they had a lot of apprehension and concerns about whether CORE/Flex would work, but they decided to “run with it,” Weltz said.
To determine which students have failing grades, PHS administrators run a report at the end of each month that shows which kids are earning a D or F. Those students then report to class during CORE/Flex time for the entire next month, where attendance is taken.
Students with OK grades have 20 minutes of academic flex time during CORE/Flex. They can finish homework, work on term papers, study or meet friends in the foyer area, connect with a teacher if they need extra help or shoot hoops in the open gym.
“The library is abuzz,” Weltz said, with students using the computers, studying, playing Magic, Dungeons and Dragons and chess, doing a jigsaw puzzle or reading.
They do have some parameters, such as not leaving campus.
Freshmen Elise Plaiss and Jaylynn LeaderCharge were having a granola bar. At a nearby table Naima Crowl worked on a science assignment. All three girls said they liked CORE/Flex because it gave them extra time.
Thomas Vergeront and a friend played chess, and said they usually do during CORE/Flex time.
Longtime history teacher Bob Hislop is in favor of CORE/Flex. He said he’s had students hustling to turn in assignments so they would not be getting a failing grade at the end of the month.
Some advanced placement students use the flex time to review for the AP tests, as Pat Danley and his AP History students do each Thursday.
Students in Danley’s review session have a study guide and can mark areas that they need to review or delve into more deeply.
Science teacher Jon Petersen said, “It’s a great opportunity for students who have missed class due to illness or school activities to get caught up, make up labs or quizzes or just get some extra help.”
CORE/Flex is an important piece of PHS’s high school reform efforts, according to Weltz, sliding into place with a safe and positive school climate and teachers working actively in groups to redefine teaching and learning for students.
