An article in the sports section of Monday's Butler Eagle reported on the Pittsburgh Pirates' dwindling patience with the team's young pitching staff, especially starting pitcher Ian Snell.

With the Pirates having compiled a 4-10 record at the time that article was written, and the opportunity for a winning season quickly slipping away from the team, personnel and lineup changes, as well as changes in some game strategies, seem inevitable — and, for Bucs fans, the sooner the better.

Now, shift to the Karns City School District, where the school board has decided to eliminate block scheduling of classes at the junior-senior high school. The move has been deemed necessary to improve students' scores on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests.

In 2005, 40 percent of Karns City's juniors scored at basic or below basic in reading. A person doesn't need a Ph.D. degree to understand that that statistic is unacceptable.

For the past decade, Karns City has used a form of block scheduling under which students stay in one classroom for two class periods of social studies or English. At the semester change, students in social studies for the first semester have switched to English for the second semester, and vice versa.

Other subjects have been taught in the traditional 40-minute classes.

Just like the top brass of the Pirates and Manager Jim Tracy currently are weighing all of their personnel and on-the-field decisions, Larry Henry, Karns City superintendent, and the school board have weighed their options on the test scores issue and have decided that the do-nothing option is not the best option — especially since low test scores could negatively affect state funding in the future.

There also is a bigger concern. Districts whose students consistently score poorly in the state testing could be taken over by the state.

At least some members of Karns City's teaching staff understandably are not happy about the change and are not happy about not having been consulted about the move prior to the school board's action in March. Bob Dandoy, who chairs the English Department, said the experts "are right here and no one asked them."

It can be argued that at least in the spirit of courtesy, the teaching staff should have been given official notice of what was being contemplated early on and, as part of that notice, asked for input — even if the board was committed to not changing its mind.

But the fact that, as Dandoy points out, teachers have been placed in the position of having to make major revisions to lesson plans, and that there could be financial implications for the district in terms of buying additional textbooks, are not adequate justification for failing to make a move to try to better the state test scores.

As professionals, Pirates players will have to adjust to whatever moves Tracy and the team's top brass decide to pursue. As professionals, Karns City's teachers must make whatever adjustments are necessary to strive to make the board's new edict successful.

The board's action should not have come as a total surprise, however, since Grades 7 and 8 already had been evolving back toward a traditional class schedule.

Henry makes a good point in noting that under block scheduling, some students can go a year without an English class, and that what students learn at the beginning of a year might be forgotten by the time they take the PSSA tests.

"We thought it would be beneficial to have contact the whole year," he said.

The PSSA testing, controversial from the get-go, still is opposed in some of the state's 501 school districts.

Regardless, the testing is mandated and districts must adhere to requirements regarding those examinations.

The Karns City board has spoken and Henry, other district administrators and the teaching staff must comply with the board's action that, beginning in the fall, social studies and English will be taught all year in 40-minute classes.

District parents shouldn't embrace the notion that, because of the board's action, block scheduling is the biggest part of the blame for the troubling test results, or that the teachers are the big culprits. The biggest amount of blame rests with the students themselves — the students who haven't made the most of the educational opportunities that are available to them.

The Pirates are becoming increasingly impatient and must make significant changes soon. Karns City officials obviously have been impatient for some time and have decided that now is the time for a different "game plan."

Hopefully, there will be success on both fronts.