AT minutes
12/3/12
In Attendance: Shane Ogden, Jim Peacock, Jill Lowe, Donna
Starley, Mike Mudrow, Paul Wagner, Mary Morgan, Brad Nelson, Lacy Fonnesbeck,
Toph Cottle, Drew Neilson, Lisa Hopkins, Jason Soffe
Excused: Curtis Jenson, Gordon Geddes
Minute taker entered midway through the meeting-
Presentation/breakdown of schedules in depth:
AB modified:
Semester Modified:
Lisa: What about
sports or other activities that would fall every week on the same time. Students will be missing the same time every
week.
Mike: Every schedule
is not perfect; it’s something we would need to discuss. The schedule, the preps, the courses are not
being lost. We would keep our high
scores for our students. We are losing
student workload. We are also gaining
flexibility and intervention time for our students.
Shane: Minor issue
with BATC. We will also lose lunch
ladies if we don’t have students eating lunch.
When we speak with them tomorrow, that will be brought up. All of these schedules have the same lunch
proposal.
Paul: I have been on
both sides of the fence, but I feel that we get the best options with this
modified schedule. We get the prep time
we need.
Trimester Modified: (presentation)
Brad: we cannot go
back to the trimester. This is the
modified tri-block that has the intervention.
Can earn 28 credits. Students
would have 6 periods and have just as many options as they do now. Math would be an ABC. Some AP science classes also go all
year. This schedule will give us many
options.
Jim: This schedule is
not adjusting any graduation requirements.
Not changing any foreign language or social studies classes. It gives our students the best options.
Shane: My concern is
now filling a student’s 15 classes?
Teachers may have to teach what they have to teach instead of what they
have a passion to teach.
Brad: We may be short
for faculty.
Drew: How short are
we? That’s a serious concern that we
don’t lose teachers. I know we can’t be
guaranteed anything. I just know that we
would be remiss if we changed schedules and lost any teachers.
Donna: Every student
is required to take ED-tech. Do the math
for that class. How big are those
classes-20 students per class? It won’t
be funded at that.
Paul: That’s when we
start shuffling teachers like we did when we did the RIF. Gordon ended up having to teach some remedial
math classes that he doesn’t love.
Donna: We could do
the financial lit and see the trickle-down effect.
Brad: Somewhere we
have made an adjustment to come here.
Mike: We could lose
faculty with this.
Donna: Would we
change the graduation requirements? We
would have to change them to do this.
Brad: 55 minute
classes and 40 minute classes on Wednesdays, or 50 minute periods on Wednesdays
with shortened PLC time. Here is the
trimester minute breakdown-9360 minutes per year for 3 trimesters.
Mike: Does the core
change depending on what schedule you are on?
Brad: The core is
what it is. That doesn’t change.
Shane: For classes
that you have a CRT and teaching a c, those classes might lose some worthwhile
class time. What happens to those
students?
Paul: There is also
the issue of giving all students a C classes who might not need it.
Brad: pros of this
schedule. Duel class options…getting two
for one credits for students (medical term & math credits). It’s a little more work for the
instructor.
Shane: I can see math 1, 2 and 3 using all three trimesters.
Drew: Minute break
down of total minutes per year….for students and teacher (prep and
workload). Average per class.
Block: students per class-40, students per day 240
Semester: students per class-42, students per day 168
Trimester: students per class-36, students per day 180
RUBRIC ELEMENTS:
Semester
|
AB Modified
|
Trimester
|
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Minutes p/week
|
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Minutes p/day
|
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Minutes p/year
|
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Simplicity
|
||||
Focus Group
|
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Course choices
|
||||
Teacher workload
|
||||
Student workload
|
||||
Schedule Constraints
|
Drew: I have to be
honest, I like having my minority students all year. I love being able to get to know them. What’s best for them might not be best for
our majority.
Shane: You are right;
it’s about building relationships with them.
Drew: I think we need
to turn this over to the administration and allow them to decide and we will
support what they decide.
Paul: It’s between
the semester and trimester-modified schedules.
Drew: We need to get
back to our classes and students; this is eating up so much of our time.
Shane: Have we
answered the questions about moving to the trimesters? Increased grad requirements, relationships,
instructional contact, testing schedules and scores, accreditation team
recommendation.
Lisa: statewide testing seems to revolve around the semester
schedule. Most schools are on the AB.
Shane: Drew said that
he felt his minority students do better on the semester vs. the trimester. My worry is that this minority group is the
kids we are looking at, that are failing.
Gordon had 46 kids in his remedial class and 3 kids were not
Hispanic. Jim made the comment that Utah
as a whole is doing a crappy job and educating minority students. I believe our advanced kids are going to do
great no matter what. They have lots of
options. I still worry about the group
of kids that needs more. Toph?
Jason: Semester does provide more time. It’s a huge
advantage for students that need more time.
I can go through lessons with more time.
I worry with the trimester will take away that time.
Toph: I can’t
represent the minority, but it’s not working right now. So, we need to implement intervention time.
Mary: With Math, we
have more time to help those students and slow down.
Shane: Will that
speed increase with a rolling semester?
If that total time per week is the same?
Brad: If the semester
isn’t working now, why will it work in the future?
Donna: It should be
about the intervention. All models have
addressed the same amount of time for intervention.
Lisa: Class time can
be a problem, but an intervention will help address that. Unless we change some other things, it’s not
going to address that. I can see an easy
fit with going to semesters. If the
doesn’t work, we can look at a bigger schedule change. Maybe we just take one piece of the puzzle at
a time and change that.
Mary: What about
making this the intervention on Wednesday afternoon instead of morning?
Brad: we need to go into this with full steam. It’s all or nothing.
Shane: Are we at a
consensus that we are going to leave it to the administration to decide on the
two schedules?
