For Wissahickon, it would be the status quo. Block Scheduling provides extra time because you do not lose time taking roll and getting the students started. This is certainly a gain if you have teachers who lose a lot of time getting the students started. Hopefully this is not the case at Wissahickon. This year Wissahickon contracted an inservice speaker, Dr. Harry Wong, to talk to teachers about tricks to get students moving immediately and how to keep them moving.
Most teachers have a pre-class on the board that students are to do immediately upon entering class.
The teacher takes roll and reviews the pre-class within 2 minutes. Many are so effective with the pre-class that they actually squeeze some minutes from hall time to be added to their class. There is a benefit. Teachers use more varied teaching styles. I have yet to see any scientific evidence that this is true.