Block scheduling has had many effects on William Tennent High School since its introduction in the fall, but probably nowhere greater than on the course catalog. 

Twenty-four new classes have been introduced to the Warminster school during the last year, many of them electives. The school has hired four full-time teachers and one part-timer to handle the extra teaching load. 

The newest class, 20th Century Arts and Literature, will be available next year for students in the gifted program. It was brought before the school board last month to give gifted students a fifth block of English to fulfill their requirements. 

But it was presented under such a tight deadline that the board's education committee didn't have time to review the curriculum. The class, which doesn't have a teacher assigned yet, has a curriculum that includes the study of expressionism, the Stanley Kubrick film "2001: A Space Odyssey" and William Faulkner. 

"I want to take this class!" said Marilyn Frisch, the school's director of gifted education. 

Block scheduling was instituted at the start of this school year. Class periods have been expanded from 40 minutes to 90 minutes to allow students more class time to concentrate on each subject. Instead of one year, classes now last one semester; which lets students take more classes. 

Tennent has used some of the extra time to present new advanced placement classes, but the hulk of the classes are electives. There's a Law and Justice class, where students study famous cases in US. legal history and listen to lawyers talk about the law. 

Other new courses include test preparation, study skills, advanced placement studio art, and Fiction Into Film, a class about how novels become movies. 

Social studies teacher Ed Austin says that his department has really lucked out with the block schedule. Before this year, students took three years of social studies courses. Now they are required to take four courses, or blocks. 

"When you go to a block situation, you provide the students with more options, because they need to take more classes." Austin said. "This has increased the number of students taking social studies." It's not just social studies: every department is now teaching more students. The academic departments chose the new classes. 

"Some of [the classes] were chosen by the desire to be competitive, to meet the demands of colleges or businesses. and also what the kids want." said principal Eileen Poroszok. "We're excited." 

To make room for new classes. the Centennial school board last week voted to kill the metalworking and wood working classes. Board members argued that if students want shop courses, they can go to Middle Bucks Institute in Jamison.