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Dr. David Hopson |
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March 10, 2008 The Commonwealth of Massachusetts mandates both the number of days students will attend school and the number of hours of instructional time that they must receive within those days. Using this basic information and the daily schedules of the elementary, middle and high schools, the district develops a calendar that meets state requirements and attempts to balance the needs of students, staff development and the working conditions established by various union contracts. Over the years this has worked well and there have not been any problems. As high school students, parents and staff now know, we discovered we would not meet our minimum requirements this year and changed the high school schedule to resolve this issue. While our calendar was sufficient to meet requirements, it was impacted by the early releases and late starts caused by inclement weather. These, coupled with the late starts for those high school students who don’t have to take the MCAS exams this spring, resulted in ‘time on learning’ issues for the high school. This left the high school with some difficult choices—add time to each day, add a day to the schedule, or modify the daily schedule to increase academic time within each day. The high school administration and staff have been adjusting the schedule to better meet student needs over the past two years and were planning on making one additional change for the 2008-2009 school year. The schedule implemented this past week essentially moved up the new schedule, allowing us to make up ‘lost time’ as well as ensuring that we are providing ample hours to prevent this from recurring next year. This new schedule results in all high school students having lunch together, and advisory programs meeting on Tuesdays and Thursdays (rather than daily). The elementary and middle schools are not impacted directly by this change, nor must they change their schedules because the state requires 90 fewer hours at these levels than it does at the high school level. While all schools are impacted by time lost to inclement weather, only the high school is affected by changing schedules for MCAS testing. Due to the costly accommodations required for administering the high school MCAS exams and the limited number of staff to meet those requirements, the district has opted to have high school students NOT taking the MCAS exams come to school 2 hours later on the five days of testing. The cost of increased busing is nearly the same as hiring additional staff to meet the testing requirements and makes testing days progress much more smoothly. It does mean that we ‘lose’ 10 hours of instructional time (and as you can imagine, the state doesn’t pay for administering MCAS). I give much credit to the high school administration and staff as they move forward to meet the state’s requirements in the least disruptive manner. The preparation that these individuals had done to modify the schedule to better meet student needs next year has paid unexpected dividends this year. That our staff has once again effectively planned ahead and made adjustments mid-year shows their professionalism, concern for students and a desire to make the schedule work for everyone involved. I continue to be thankful for having staff, throughout the entire district, that are outstanding professionals who work cooperatively to meet student needs in every aspect and they deserve the credit for creating and maintaining an outstanding school district.
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