The independent study program at San Lorenzo Valley High School is set for a major change this fall, and program director Wayne Sandles is exasperated.

Sandles, who’s been with the program since its inception 16 years ago and directed it since 2000, says he understands that declining school enrollment means there must be cuts, but he argues that the number of independent studies students has not changed during that same time period and that the program should remain intact.

The school’s overall enrollment the past three years has dropped from about 1,000 students to 785, according to SLV High Principal Mike Arredondo.

Meanwhile, Sandles said, the enrollment in independent studies has remained in the 70s for the past nine years. This year, with one fewer teacher — two rather than three because of a retirement — the program accommodated 53 full-time students at roughly a 25-1 student-to-teacher ratio.

Independent studies offers students who receive F’s or can’t learn in the classroom a way to make up those credits — and with no summer school, independent studies is becoming the place to recover credits lost when a student fails a class.

“They can earn credits as fast as they can work,” Arredondo said.

But cuts will drop the independent studies program from two full-time teaching positions to 1.6 teaching positions, influencing what the program can offer to students.

Sandles said the decision to change the program was made without consulting him or his staff, the experts in credit recovery at the school.

“A proposal to do credit recovery through independent studies should be thoroughly discussed with our staff, and a key element to the success of independent studies, the bonding of student-teacher, cannot be ignored,” Sandles said to the district board of trustees May 19.

Most independent studies

students are juniors and seniors who have had difficulty succeeding on campus. They take full course loads on their own and meet weekly with Sandles or teacher Lisa Steingrube.

Sandles said students who fail in a traditional classroom often succeed in independent studies because they form a bond with a teacher and don’t want to disappoint him or her. He thinks eliminating that full-time option for students is the wrong approach.

“There are situations where students need the full-time independent study,” Arredondo said, noting medical or work-related situations. “We’re not saying no to those, we’re saying those should be the exception, not the rule.”

In the redesigned program, students who fail classes during their freshmen and sophomore years can split their class schedule between independent studies and classes on campus in an effort to recover credits lost to failed classes.

That redesign is a response to the district not being able to offer summer school for the first time, Arredondo said.

The cut, Arredondo explained, means there will be fewer full-time independent studies students, but the program could add part-time students who receive F’s as freshmen or sophomores.