Minutes and Discussion
Preliminary Projected Enrollment and Staffing for 2012-2013
We received our projected enrollment for next school year. We are projected to have 866 students next year. Realize it is only the first stage of projections and subject to change. This would be the largest enrollment we've had since about 2004. Our current enrollment is 830, which is about 55 students more than we were expecting this year. We are staffed right now for 775 students. So if our projections hold, and our district's staffing ratios (teachers per student) don't change, we should be adding 3 additional teaching units for the 2012-2013 school year. That's a good thing, and would allow us to consider a few new ideas for scheduling next year. Again, please realize these projections are tentative and preliminary.
Potential Schedule Changes for 2012-2013
The preliminary projections discussed above certainly should inform our ongoing discussion about potential bell schedules for next year. I'm thinking our choices fall into three categories:
- Keep current 6-period schedule but look at tweaking PAW. We would need to better utilize PAW, especially for ICU purposes. Some have suggested moving it to mornings for announcements and lifeguarding (when ICU lifeguards come around and remind students what they owe in terms of missing assignments). Others have suggested moving it to midday where it would be connected to lunches. The advantage of keeping PAW each day is that we might be able to use it better for ICU.
- Keep current 6-period schedule and try to find a way to add a few minutes to each class period. This would likely involve cutting back PAW to only once or twice per week. We might be able to get 58 or 59 minutes per period. We could also choose to go with the schedule discussed at the November meeting, which would allow one longer class period each week.
- Go back to the 5-period alternating block schedule we had from 2008 to 2011. The advantage of this schedule would be the longer 65-minute periods. Of course, with 866 kids, we would have larger class sizes than in option 1 or 2. We would also likely have to go back to certain courses meeting every other day - such as Social Studies and Fine Arts.
Title 1 Budget Amendment
We need to move $500 from Title 1 technology hardware to another account that would allow us to repair a few broken items. One teacher's laptop has a broken screen, and a couple of teachers have broken devices that are not too costly to repair. You will need to vote for or against this budget amendment.
We talked about scheduling possibilities at our campus leadership team meeting this morning. Here is a summary of the group's ideas:
ReplyDeleteMove PAW to the beginning of the day with a class change (20-25 minutes). PAW teachers will do their own lifeguarding with their assigned PAW students, and when the bell rings students will move to their first class. We could possibly begin at 8:25 as opposed to 8:30.
· Add 10 minutes to the last period of the day for rounding up G.O.T. students. Teachers who have planning periods the last period of the day will have to round up kids the last 10 minutes of the last period of the day. They will have already had their planning period at that point.
· 6 period day vs. 5 period day?
About enrollment: Does Dr. Sab have discretion to hire another counselor to share the load of these additional students and get SOMS back to one counselor per grade level?
ReplyDeleteAbout schedule: PAW is an important part of each day whether it happens in the morning, mid-day or end of day. Larger class size does not seem the best option for teachers or kids. Could you give us some numbers of what that might really look like?
About the Budget Amendment: I vote yes for the $500 transfer.
Facility Question: has there been talk about adding a gate or fence in the front/Shadowdale side of the school to increase campus security?
Another Facility Question: How is Ms. Nathan's room coming along?
Units-Also not sure how the state budget cuts will be handled. This year there was a repreive with a special allotment from the "Rainy Day Fund," but next year, that allotment isn't guaranteed. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
ReplyDeleteSchedule-If there are bigger classes with more time, it would be ok IF the classes were as even as possible across periods. The idea for this year was that more periods would lead to lower class sizes hasn't been what we expected, ending up with some classes under 20 and others 30+, and less time with all of them.
Bugdet amendment--Yes.
Ditto about Ms. Nathan's room.
Budget - yes. I'll comment on the rest shortly. =)
ReplyDeleteBudget Amendment--yes
ReplyDeleteSchedule for Next Year--In a perfect world we would have longer class periods and fewer students, but that won't be possible next year. Maybe we should survey teachers to find out what they would prefer. Maybe if they understood that going back to a 65 minute class period would mean larger class sizes, they would be better informed to help us make a decision.
Specific answers to the questions of enrollment and class size are hard to know at this point. I would estimate our average class size in academic classes at about 26-27 students. It does vary significantly as Bruce mentioned. I've asked the counselors to give us an idea of what class size "might" be in a 5 period schedule. They are trying to come up with something. At least some teachers have voiced that they would rather have slightly larger class sizes and more time with the kids than vice versa. Don't know if most teachers would agree, but the reason most often stated is that there is not as much "quality instructional time" in a 55 minute class once you consider that it takes several minutes to get the class settled and started and that it takes several minutes to get the class ended and everything put up. I agree with Tanisia that we should poll teachers once we have a better idea of the consequences of each option.
ReplyDeleteAs far as counselors next year, we are not likely to get any more support positions given the current state budget situation.
Fence issue: We are planning to have fencing that would keep pedestrian traffic out of the buildings, but we have not requested fencing around the exterior perimeter of the campus. So the fencing we've requested will be short fences between buildings (like the one installed between the A and B buildings). Example: there will be a new fence with gates that will connect the MPR to the C building and the C building to the existing fence on the hardtop. A large vehicle gate will be installed that will prevent vehicles from passing into the back of the school after school hours.
Ms. Nathan's art room will likely not be ready until mid spring semester. I did notice that they tore out all the old cabinetry over the holidays, so that's the first step. Until then, her classes will remain in B204.