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About 200 students walked out of Berkeley High School Wednesday afternoon and marched on to district headquarters protesting the move from a seven- to a six-period day beginning next fall. 

“We will not go quietly into the night, we will not give up without a fight,” chanted the students, who were met on the steps of district headquarters by Superintendent Michele Lawrence and her leadership team. 

“These decisions were made without our input,” said BHS senior Sean Dugar, one of the students who led the protest. “That is not OK.” 

Students raised concerns that the shift to a six-period day, approved by the Board of Education last week in a wave of $3.8 million in budget cuts, will harm the school’s successful double-period science class and lead to deep cuts in electives, including music, the arts and African-American studies courses.  

Some even said they were worried that the entire African-American studies department might be chopped. 

“You’re operating under a misunderstanding,” said Lawrence through a bullhorn, straining to be heard. “There is no intention, there was never an intention and I don’t believe there will be an accidental intention of in any way hurting the African-American Studies Department.” 

Lawrence said that there will be reductions in electives for the approximately 3,000 students including, quite possibly, African-American studies classes, as a result of the move to a six-period day. But she emphasized that reductions do not mean elimination. 

“There will have to be some reductions,” she said. “That doesn’t mean music is going to go away or African-American studies will go away.” 

After the protest Lawrence told the Daily Planet that the district will determine what reductions to make after meeting with administrators and department heads at the high school and evaluating which courses students choose to take next semester. Students will begin choosing classes in a couple of weeks. 

Lawrence said it was too early to determine which specific elective programs will face reductions and how steep those reductions will be. But, when asked about science in particular, she suggested that some double-period offerings will remain and some will not. 

Dana Johnson, a senior at BHS, said moving from double- to single-period science will harm the quality of the program and make it more difficult for students to get a handle on complex subjects. 

“Right now, I’m in advanced biology,” she said. “The class I’m in, if it’s one period, I won’t learn enough, and it’s going to be so much harder.” 

Johnson also raised concerns that cuts in African-American Studies classes will disproportionately effect African-American students. 

“Some African-American Studies classes are the only classes African-American students can take and pass, and not fall through the cracks,” she said. 

Dharini Rasiah, a video teacher who attended the protest, raised concerns about a reduction in arts classes. “I’m furious,” said Rasiah, who teaches five video classes. 

Rasiah said many of her students take video courses for two or three periods a day and are able to develop their skills and produce award-winning work. She worries that, with the shift to a six-period day, students will only be able to take one video class in their high school careers, reducing achievement. 

School board President Shirley Issel, who was at the protest, said the board has “a commitment to quality, academic excellence and our rich elective programs.” 

“They’ll be adjusted,” Issel said, of the elective courses, “but I don’t think they’ll be compromised.” 

Lawrence offered to meet with students in a more structured setting to answer their concerns about the six-period day.