November 28 Meeting: Schedule Discussion Cont.

AT Minutes

11/28/12

In Attendance:  Shane Ogden, Jill Lowe, Jim Peacock, Paul Wagner, Lacy Fonnesbeck, Drew Neilson, Brad Nelson, Curtis Jenson, Gordon Geddes, Mike Mudrow, Mary Morgan, Donna Starley, Sharilee Griffiths, Toph Cottle

Excused: Jason Soffe

Mary:  In the SPED department, a rollover is hard.  They have to have aids and personnel here at specialized times.   Here are a few schedule examples of student schedules.

Drew:  Aren’t they in self-contained classrooms?

Mary:  No, not all are self-contained.  A full time staff is something else, and there wouldn’t be as many concerns.  Tashina has 16 students right now. 

Donna:  We could do something that is not as complicated and keep it simple.

Paul:  I shared some rolling ideas with our English dept.  Not many liked it, it just sounds messy.  No real reasons why they didn’t like it.

Gordon:  I saw the same thing in the social studies deparment. 

Paul:  What if we did a 6 period tri that is optional period for students that need it.  All students would have 5 periods.  Half teachers, half students could start later or earlier.   This is good for students who want electives and AP courses.  Bussing would be an issue.  Our credit earning potential could go up to 9 available credits.

Brad:  I like the options and flexibility. 

Mary:  This also allows our students to retake classes the very next trimester instead of waiting a whole year.

Donna:  How can we fund this when we won’t be getting anymore FTE if a student would like to take one extra class?

Sharilee:  Would you have teachers who would like to start early and kids wanting to come late? 

Shane:  An obstacle is going to be bussing.  We need to keep that in mind. 

Drew:  Why not just have some students having certain hours off?

Shane:  How many students are helping out parents who are working?  Sharilee, what do you think?

Sharilee:  I know many of our Hispanic students are doing it.  They would have a hard time getting here by then.  Some after school kids that stay for tutoring and mentoring and would struggle.

Mike: I still haven’t heard anyone address instructional gaps and CRT’s.

Shane:  I will address the instructional gaps and CRT.  A longer period will address that through differentiated learning and working in smaller groups.  The research has shown that longer periods will help with that.

Mike:  Please look at this schedule I handed out.

Paul:  If we run it like Sky View, and introduce ala carte in the lobby and extend the lunch hour, we would need to work with the lunch people to prepare all lunches.

Shane:  We have 300 more students than county schools.  We don’t have the actual equipment to make the lunch in that much time.  We serve more students here than either county school.

Mike: with this schedule, we are staying within the bounds of where we are now with just more class time.

Brad:  We spoke with Dave Isom about the different schedules he has been on and why certain things work.  He really like the trimester the best because of the time issues, not too much, but just enough.

Gordon:  I can see prep time issues with some teachers getting more free time than others.

Shane:  We need to remember it’s about our students options.  We can’t cater to teachers that have to teach only certain hours.  It really limits our students.

Mike:  I think we are getting more contact hours with our students and that’s why our scores are so much better. 

Donna:  I agree with Shane, we need something that isn’t going to put departments and teachers against each other.

Lacy:  What about some of the schedules they are doing in Wyoming and also Rich High School.  We would have to extend the school day.  A four day school week.  Take the Friday and use the time elsewhere where it can be better for the kids.

Shane:  Some schools have had great success with that and not many athletics.  With 14 athletic events, it’s going to be impossible to say that those can’t be interrupted.  The school is very small and rural and can get away from that.  Also, as a result, they have lost championship teams.  Many schools will only travel on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  Parents hate it because they lose their weekends.  It’s an option.  I haven’t asked about us having later start times for PLC’s.  I will bet that we are tied to that, like we have currently.

Brad:  I would like to take this modified tri and identify the hurdles.  I am not sure that we can’t overcome some of these.

Mike:  I will plug this into my computer and run what this would look like.

Shane:  Issues:  Bussing, FTE funding, kids only 5, teaching 4 out of 5, Hispanic families concern.  What are our must haves?  Contact time during the day or yearlong?  My research shows that it’s during the day, length during the school day that helps more. 

MUST HAVES: 

Mike:  I was very skeptical when we moved from trimesters to semesters.  The teacher at MC is an awesome teacher, and has won many awards.  She has lower scores than I do and she attributes that to her class time.  A trimester has fallbacks when it comes to 1^st and 2^nd tri with and test during the 3^rd.

Mary:  We can get around the concerns from Paul’s Kelly Tri.  We just create a 6 period tri.  We can have before and after school programs for kids that don’t have the first hour but just have to ride the bus.  We would only have the bus come once.

Paul:  We would run into staffing issues with that.  What is the magic number of class time?  We need to know what minutes would look like.

Brad:  I would like to tackle some of these hurdles and see if we could actually make some of these work.

Donna:  I worry about our Fine Arts-Chauntairs, the musical classes.  What will be required?

Shane:  I spoke with Dave about what they do at Sky View.

Mike:  I am still reserved about our instructional gaps and CRT scores. 

Lacy:  Why can’t we put the junky Friday time somewhere else?

Shane:  I love 4 day work weeks.  However, there are still lots of limitations.  Our hourly employees were hurt with one less work day.  It does affect them and their family.  That halted it in Idaho where I was.  I have seen Friday intervention days that don’t work.  It also will bring our Hispanic students into concern again, where they need to be home to help parents.

Mike:  Four day weeks wouldn’t work with the 60 minute classes, we are eliminating options again.

Paul:  What about a 6 period tri, with a rollover.  70 minute classes with an intervention time every day.  We would have to decide what courses could go year round and have the data to support.

Lacy: We waste lots of instructional time with start and stops.  We are not teaching actually 3100 hours. 

Donna:  I have already handed the list out with the data we need to decide what classes would need what. 

Mike:  I can provide information tomorrow.

Shane:  Paul made the comment that not all minutes are created equal.  The last four weeks of school are worth half of what the rest of the year.  That makes me wonder how to get classes AB, that’s the way a trimester would work.

Curtis:  what was wrong with AB rollover?

Shane:  Sub-plans shouldn’t be just finding a video.  It should be preparing for the school day.  The biggest issue with AB modified is the staffing concerns to staff for 8 periods and also training our staff to be able to utilize their time. 

Brad:  Math also suffered on the rollover schedule.

Lacy:  I don’t think that the AB rollover or modified has been an option we have really looked at.  We probably could work out the issues that are associated with it.  I think people are just scared to look at the block.  It makes better teachers.

Shane:  We could still offer quarter classes for those classes that don’t need the whole semester.  We should still be looking at it.  We need to go back to our pro and con list.  The modified AB rollover had more pros than with any other schedule.

Paul:  I think this modified 6 period rolling trimester is something that could answer all the questions.  The FTE is the issue that I can’t answer.  There aren’t any problems here.  We could be flexible.

Shane:  Will everyone want the first two periods?  If we are looking at the trimester, we need to be able to address the issues that we faced when we moved away from the tri.  We still have the questions in place.

Jim:  It’s now a modified tri.  We have an intervention and a sixth period.

Donna:  Please take this sheet back to your department and ask each department would have to be a C. 

Shane:  No one submitted any new courses for the year to us, so we still have the same courses that we have now.  As long as it was on the list last year.

Mike:  Donna, can you address the BATC issues?

Donna:  They work with us and grumble a little but can make it work.  They might be happy with us if we moved back to a tri like everyone else.  Please email me what you find with the courses that need a C and I will put this in today.