By Larry Coonrod, Lebanon Express writer | Posted: Wednesday, November 5, 2008 12:00 am
A suggested change to the Lebanon High School's master schedule of classes for the second and third trimester met with a lukewarm reception from most board members and school district administrators during Monday's school board meeting.
Spanish teacher Kim Fandino proposed the changes.
Fandino said she asked Social and Information Systems academy administrator Tami Volz last week if she could work on a change to the master schedule of classes that would better accommodate students. Fandino said she was motivated to look at a schedule change after a number of teachers expressed anger at not being able to place students in required classes.
"We've known since last spring that scheduling was a problem," Fandino said. "Advisers are very angry about not being able to help kids."
A master schedule of classes for the following year is usually put together and teachers assigned classes in the spring, after students forecast what subjects they plan on taking. Asked by parent Laura Baker to explain how scheduling works, Fandino gave her the proposed schedule and Baker passed it along to board member Rick Alexander.
Before Monday's meeting, Alexander said he was hoping the board would vote to implement the new master schedule that night.
"Scheduling has been a problem for over two years," Alexander said. "Kids aren't getting the classes they need to graduate. We have a scheduling crisis. There are 17 days before the new trimester starts so we need to get this done now."
Fandino's schedule made required classes such as Algebra I available every period.
Acting superintendent Steve Kelley told the board he had only seen the proposed schedule at 11 a.m. Monday when Alexander presented it to him. He said Alexander refused to let him ask questions about it.
Kelley raised a number of concerns about implementing a sweeping change to the class schedule two weeks before the new trimester starts. Many teachers are already doing preparation work for next trimester's classes. Fandino's schedule reassigns teachers to different subjects than the current schedule, leaving them little time to prepare new material, Kelley said.
Re-entering student data would be a time consuming process as well, Kelley said. Additionally, the district would have to make sure that teachers are rated by the state as highly qualified in the subjects they would be reassigned to. After consulting with the high school's administrators and counselors, Kelley said he concluded adopting Fandino's schedule was "not doable" in time for the second trimester.
"Any schedule changes need to be part of a long term plan," Kelley said. It's something we absolutely need to look at."
Fandino said she consulted with some teachers and students in proposing reassignment of classes but no counselors.
"Counselors are not in the trenches," she said.
David Champion, spokesperson for a local group of parents working to find solutions to the poor math scores at the high school, advised the board against adopting the new schedule without doing an in-depth review. Identifying and helping at-risk students who are skipping classes and not turning in assignments would be a more practical, immediate step to fixing the schedule problem, according to Champion.
"Your schedule will really loosen up when kids start passing. That's the first issue," Champion said.
Board members Russ McUne, Debi Shimmin and Josh Wineteer expressed an interest in exploring changes to the master schedule but all agreed the consequences of any changes would need to be clear before going forward. Chris Fisher did not attend Monday's meeting.
"I'd like to know how many kids are being affected right now and how many will be negatively affected by a schedule change," McUne said.
"This is a lot of information. I've listened to everyone and it's important we have a conversation about this," Shimmin said. "I can't make an an observation without further reviewing the material."
Board members agreed to a work session on Nov. 17 to discuss scheduling changes.
After the meeting, Volz said she had asked Fandino to look at the master schedule but had not expected the information to go to the school board without further review.
"I felt really exposed tonight," Volz said.
Fandino disagreed with the assessment that adopting her proposed schedule isn't practical this year.
"It's just a matter of passion, desire and elbow grease," she said. "We have plenty of teachers who have volunteered to help reenter information in the system because they care about the kids."