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Time Crunch

Trustees, teachers wrangle over school calendar

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ST. IGNATIUS — There’s been a lot of talk about dates in Mission this year, but so far, none of them are settled. A proposed schedule change for the 2011-12 middle and high school academic year has teachers in turmoil and the school board grappling with making the right decision for the St. Ignatius School.

The calendar in question suggests two major changes for next year, superintendent Bob Lewandowski explained. It would give teachers more PIR days — days teachers work on lesson plans, etc., when students are out of school — and the school day would also be longer by 47 minutes. Lewandowski and the board of trustees believe more PIR days are essential for school staff to be able to address the district’s stated goals of improving students’ reading and math scores.

“In order to address those (goals), we need more time together (as a staff),” Lewandowski said.

The school’s highest absentee rates are on Fridays, he said, so the added PIR days — both part and full days — would be scheduled on Fridays. School would begin at 8:10 a.m. and end at 3:37 p.m., giving students and teachers more time in class Monday through Thursday and on Fridays that aren’t PIR days, a plan teachers say isn’t an acceptable substitute for having students in class all day, five days a week. Kids need more daily face-to-face interaction with teachers than that plan would allow, St. Ignatius teachers’ union president Terry Cable said.

“The main issue for the teachers is we don’t want to lose a bunch of days … seeing our students,” Cable said. “We just don’t think it’s educationally sound to take days off … I just don’t see it working for our school.”

After the board planned to vote on the proposed changes at its March 15 meeting, Cable submitted a letter to the trustees stating that making the changes without negotiating with the teachers’ union would be unfair labor practice. She expressed deep concern on behalf of union members, many of whom are parents whose kids attend the Mission school, that the changes would be detrimental to education in the district. Cable pointed out that all told, the school staff boasts around 500 years of combined experience in education, and teachers feel that their input should carry greater weight with the board.

“We want you to know that we’re concerned; we’re worried,” Cable told the board in a standing-room-only meeting March 15. “We’re parents … we’re here for the long haul.”

Board chair Maxine Whitson said the board would table the issue until the Federation (union) could hold negotiations with the trustees.

“We have gone through a lot of preparation, and we feel that we’ve done the right thing,” Whitson told Cable. “We’ll work with you and I want you to know we really appreciate you coming … The board is committed to more PIR days for you.”

The proposed new calendar was one of four original proposals discussed in a series of four community meetings in January and February, which students in sixth through 12th grades, their parents, school staff and all community members were invited to attend, Lewandowski said. 

“We had a pretty good representation from a lot of different people,” he said.

After reviewing “everything from attendance to discipline” and other factors that affect how the school calendar is designed, the board surveyed the community on the four proposals and found that about a third of parents, students and teachers favored proposal No. 2 over the other three. The other options included reusing last year’s calendar, going with a few different PIR days from option No. 2, or the most drastic choice, which had more Friday releases than any other calendar, Lewandowski explained. 

While the board is somewhat behind the eight-ball at this point to finalize a calendar for the fall, Lewandowski said ironing out the issue is top priority.

“We all want everyone to buy in (to the new plan),” Lewandowski said. 

“I’m really impressed with the teachers and community members who’ve been part of this process.”

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