NORWICH – Too many kids are taking too many study halls at Norwich High School. According to Interim Principal Dr. Robert Cleveland, the average student has between 1 1/2 to 2 study halls in their schedule each semester.

That realization has prompted Cleveland to work with the high school’s instructional staff and the district’s administration on a plan to get students out of study halls and into elective classes.

“I’ve had an ongoing conversation with Dr. Cleveland about the quality and efficiency of high school programming,” said Superintendent Gerard O’Sullivan. “He’s taken some very positive steps in addressing these concerns.”

Cleveland presented his preliminary plan and the reasoning behind it to the Norwich City School Board last Tuesday night.

The primary goal, he said, is to “get more kids engaged in instructional activities.” Before the board, he laid out four ways of achieving that objective.

The first strategy will be to encourage students into current elective course offerings. Cleveland and his staff have reviewed those offerings and eliminated those that have not had sufficient interest.

The current master scheduling process will also need to be improved, he said.

One of the problems with scheduling, Cleveland explained, was that because of the size of the student body, many of the electives were “singleton courses” where only one section was offered each semester.

Although no scheduling system will completely eliminate conflicts, he said he believes improvements can be made to allow more students to take more classes rather than using study halls as a stand-in.

The principal would also like to see the number of credits required for graduation increased. The district’s current standard is 22 credits, which is the number required by the state for a Regents Diploma, Cleveland explained. But if students filled their semester schedules with credited classes rather than study halls, they could have at least 32 credits by graduation time.

“Right out of the box ... there is a discrepancy of 10 to 12 units between what a student could achieve as opposed to what we are requiring,” said Cleveland.

The final strategy is to design and implement a host of new elective offerings to tempt students away from study halls. Cleveland presented the board with roughly a dozen potential courses in a variety of instructional areas.