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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBlock Schedule Meeting Summary 2 4-/ Block Schedule Information Meeting Thursday, March 25, 2010 IT) WA Gymnasium; 7:40 pm -10:50 pm Total present: 64 Parents' Questions/Comments/Concerns Note: Many of parents in attendance were also at the Tuesday night meeting such as Lizann Cundall, Ann Dunlap, Debra and George Ledak, Deborah Ziegler; Additionally, many more students were present at this meeting specifically several G11 students such as Casey and Corey Timmerman, Kalil Pillai, Kayli Riggs, Madison Dickey, Haley Bender, Channing Thompson, Sabrina Freire, Danielle Krohn; Also Amarita Hans, Tristan Maynard Questions asked during presentation: Unidentified Mother 1) Asked whether we are done looking at Option A and have we decided to use Option B Clif Cox-G4 parent 1) Asked for clarification of the block schedule making better use of teacher planning time than the old way and more explanation of the planning time Unidentified Mother 1) Asked for the matrix of Option B schedule to be pulled up on screen and also wanted to see the current schedule(not available); She wanted to see them side by side and also with a sample schedule if Option A was chosen Unidentified Mother 1) Asked if we moved to option A, would that limit our opportunity to offer electives; Wanted to know if this is a monetary issue or space issue 2) Asked if we expanded Blacksmith offerings, could the community support and blacksmith program add them George Ledak- G11 and G9 1) Asked how much money do we need/how many new students must be added for one teacher (instead of 5 teachers as proposed) Unidentified Mother 1) Asked how many students would be added if we went to Option B; Would we have an athletic period if we went with Option A Ann Dunlap-G10 and G parent 1) After viewing slide of"Leaver" data-Asked if we have the data from last year to view Page 1 of 7 Session (began at 8042)o Rich Mueller- G11 and GI parent 1) Asked how do to teachers feel about the proposed new schedule and gave mic over to Mrs. Golden to speak in order to explain what it would mean to teachers 2) Asked if teachers would reap the benefits of either Option A or Option B 3) Asked if we would clarify exactly what are teacher Laura Gibbs- G10 parent 1) Questioned if we add these new students and use the new scheduling, will we have rooms that will be empty so we could have room to expand the lunchroom 2) Stated that she doesn't understand the lunch time vs. class time on the schedule shown 3) Asked if the older students will share lunch with PYP at all 4) Stated that she would like to see listed all of the Pros and Cons of Option A vs. Option B and how they impact every grade—a side by side comparison 5) Asked what is the number of students needed to add one full time teacher Karen Osborne- G8 and G5 parent 1) Stated that she has not heard a lot about the Baja money that was raised and would like an explanation how that is going to benefit her children and how is the proposed change going to benefit her children 2) Commented that we spent a lot of time and effort to build the new Arts & Sciences Center and now it seems we have all this space to add new students- thought that is why we built it to provide space for the current students and now we want to add more Kevin Maynard- G7, G5, G2 parent 1) Asked to bring back up the student/teacher ratio slide—pointed out that G7 ratio would be reduced and the others basically stay the same with the change 2) Feels that there is really no option anyway due to the way our student numbers are growing Jgy Bender- G11 parent 1) Stated that he feels we have had a lack of stability here and this is not what he had in mind for his daughter; Asked if this is from a lack of organization, leadership, vision, or what 2) Questioned whether we can really handle the addition of all of these courses; Asked if we can really provide 3 different Sciences Jackie Thomas- G 10, G6, G 1 parent 1) Stated that she would love to see this same kind of excitement of adding courses and options for the task of lobbying the State Legislature for more funding; Feels this facility is not handing what we already have and thinks we are being disingenuous with extending the class sizes especially with the lunchroom and Page 2 of 7 locker issues and with the need for more space to handle our theater classes/practice, recess and gym time. 2) Stated that she does not want us to do anything to lose interaction of older and younger kids; She loves this about our school 3) Commented that she believes that leaders/staff words and actions are spread very thin; Feels that there are some teachers that are "stand up"teachers but many don't answer their emails to students or parents; Seems to her that we have too many current teachers doing too many things and maybe we should really see how they are serving the students we have now 4) Added that her children were on the waiting list for 5 years and all she heard in the meetings was how this was a school of choice; When the phone call finally came for her oldest student to get in, she had just won an UIL band championship but they walked away to be here and drive over 80 miles a day to come here 5) Stressed that all she would like is a real honest assessment of what we are doing today, before we start adding on-students and programs. Hope Sherrod- G9 and G6 parent 1) Feels that a lot of time has gone into selling this to the parents and asked how much was spent by other public charter schools that already do this vs. one that does not; How has it affected their student body's performance 2) Asked where we are getting the data and information to back up this proposal Sabrina Freire- G11 student 1) Stated that as DP students,they need to have 4-5 Higher Level (HL) classes and asked how will this fit in with that requirement if we don't move to the Option B 2) Commented that with the current schedule now, the teachers don't have enough time to spend with them and thinks that they should get more time with them now; Added that everything presented to come with the change should already be made available to them now,with the current schedule. Desiree Millagan- G10 and G5 parent 1) Commented that she is curious about the adding of Physics and Environmental Services and asked if we will only one of these courses or two, how will we decide which ones to add and how does this effect their college admissions 2) Stated that she thinks it is absolutely ridiculous that our kids are eating lunch at 2 pm-that is just not good and asked if that was the best that we could do, adding more breaks along the day for snacks 3) Asked that we do something different with the G7 and G8 lunch time from the G1 I and G12 lunch time for many different reasons Rich Goode- G11, G8, G4 and G1 parent, 1) Asked that if we could achieve the Option B goals including the prep periods without adding new students,how many teachers would you have to add and what is the cost? Added that if we found a big bag of money to cover that cost,then we could do it that way Page 3 of 7 Darla Goode-G11, G8, G4 and G1 parent 1) Asked that with the overload of the current schedule,what do we need to do now to do it more efficiently Carmina Freire- G11, G9, G4 parent 1) Stated that she has been here for the last 7 years and understands that we are at the point that we need to do something and she agrees to add more teachers but not students 2) Asked if we have realized these kids do not have any more time—that they work constantly; Added that she thinks that these kids have gone through a lot and they are very resilient but it is time for us to buckle up and quit making so many changes-every single year. Where is the leadership? Feels all of us are stressed out-administration,teachers and the kids are watching and see this. Which is needed more—the teachers or more students. 3) Feels turnover is high with teachers because we keep burning them out 4) Asked whose final decision is it and thinks the decision has already been made Janet Noonan- G9, G7 and G6 parent 1) Stated her concern is that over the years,we get a batch of new kids and then they leave due to the curriculum; Asked how can we assure her that those teachers will not spend the first 2-3 months trying to get those kids caught up; Commented that her kids have sat in Spanish for the first 3 months of the every year repeating the same material to catch up new students; Feels we should have a system in place to better serve this situation and keep the kids from paying the price; Added that while she doesn't wish any child ill, it has caused the bar to be lowered in the classes. 2) Asked if we are really going to do this-add 60 kids (59) all at one time; Thinks it would make better sense to start off adding a smaller number instead of sacrificing the school's students and its reputation. 3) Asked if we go with Option B and add 5 new teachers, how aggressive will we be about recruiting teachers from abroad; Stated that she misses the international teachers and her children do as well Caryl Ann Jacobs- G9 and G5 ap rent 1) Thanked the staff for being here tonight and said she adores the school and supports it; 2) Stated that she believes kids have all different learning styles and thinks it is appropriate to offer more classes; Added that she does love French 3) Stated that she is concerned with the excellence and the fact that every year, she thinks that these issues will be worked out and now her kids are in G5 or G9 and after 7 years we are still trying to work everything out; Feels that as leaders, we are to inspire the teachers and then they will follow 4) Understands the that teaching 4 different levels is hard and the tipping point of no leeway but believes it will be very hard to add more kids 5) Stated that she is going to trust the leaders'judgment with this decision Page 4 of 7 Julie Timmerman- GI 1, G 10, G4 parent 1) Stated that she thinks there is a big proponent that leaders/staff are missing with their young experience at WA, that is that every year there has been a fire here in the spring and it has been emotionally exhausting; Said that we went through one last year and that fire is still not over; Added that she has been working with Mr. Garcia and he is great. Asked us to please give one more year, to graduate a class and see how many graduate with an 1B Diploma-said that maybe we will be successful without adding anymore students except by attrition; Asked again if we can please just have one more year before doing this and give it a little time 2) Feels the numbers (of students coming and going; student/teacher ratio, etc.) seem to change every time she speaks with a staff member and possibly in one more year, we would be able to answer the questions the parents have without answering"I don't know"; Added that there is a trust factor missing and that we do not have all the data because we haven't had the time 3) Stated that the kids classes did not even get changed around this current year-they have the exact same students in the two different classes as last year-because we didn't have time to switch them around; Added that these kids are tired of being with the same groups and they need that chance to mix with the other students; Feels there are other little things like this that are not getting handled and we need at least one more year to get these things in order before we add more kids and more options 4) Asked again to give one more year before making these changes 5) Commented that she does want to say good things about all the teachers that have come from North Hills but the quantity coming over is a lot and she believes that they are strong teachers but added that that we are weak in international teachers; Stated that she knows the turnover for international teachers is 3-5 years and the ones that we do still have are nearing that time; Concerned that we are not hiring enough international teachers over domestic ones for our IB school. George Ledak- G11 and G9 ap rent 1) Stated he appreciates that the Leadership Team is looking at all of the options and thanks them for looking at the quality for both teachers and students 2) Commented that as far as the block schedule goes, he thinks that it is ok and recalls that we may have already had it at one point 3) Stated that while he does appreciate the options,he has one request before the Board meeting next week-To come up with an Option C and ask what is the minimum number of new students that must be added before the new teachers can be hired to provide this block schedule with these options presented; Added that he feels we are going to add something already but please just take a look at an Option C 4) Commented that he likes the idea of adding French, but not just in the older grades; Feels a choice of language in the primary years would be very beneficial - not full course work of course but teaching the basic skills and more culturally focused Page 5 of 7 Madison Dickey- G11 student 1) Stated that she questions what this new schedule will do with Mrs. James; She knows she is a part-time teacher and how will we accommodate her schedule with this new block schedule; Feels that Mrs. James is wonderful and done so much for the students that she hates to think about her being gone Deborah Ziegler- G9,G6, G2 parent 1) Asked if we can get an analysis of those students leaving,those coming in and specifically with the progression of G7 that seems to come in and leave in 2 years; What is the why behind this; Stated that she doesn't want to see one analysis for student body as a whole but by the individual grades 2) Asked if we could put the financial slide back up that we had on Tuesday night— particularly the summary of impact; Added that she did not see any direct costs of hiring new staff or support staff 3) Referred back to comment of Mr. Ledak- Stated that she would like to see the breakeven point and questions whether we really need to add students now; Wonders if we have looked at pulling in fewer students but still providing options. Debra Ledak- G11 and G9 parent 1) Stated that she is wondering why we are sitting here and debating a decision that this Board made a year ago to use this current schedule, and the one before that, and so on; Added that it seems every time we have jumped into a new schedule that the impact has not been positive and here we sit,pointing out the faults of this schedule now 2) Referred back to Mrs. Timmerman's point and asked us to please take the time to look at this one now and get it right this time; Asked us to take a few extra months to get it right and keep the same schedule for 4 years in a row; Added that she believes it will be worth it Liz Ann Cundall- G10 and G8 parent 1) Asked if when the student gets notified that they are coming into WA, do they still get 48 hours to respond; Is that still the same procedure and if so, then how are we going to do it now, with the addition of the new students-at the beginning of the school year and at no other time; Asked if we can flex some muscle regarding this as a charter school 2) Asked if we do move to Option B schedule, will Spanish and other weak subjects be offered on both"A" days and`B" days because we are obviously not at the level we should be 3) Asked if we have done any kind of survey with the G11 and G12 students as she does not know of any G10 student that has been asked about their opinions Amrita Hans- G 10 student 1) Asked to see the Student Ambassadors meet with the newer students more and help them understand what life here is actually like; Stated that she feels that students are very vital in this role and that there should be more members in this Page 6 of 7 group instead of just letting the small group of 12-13 students do this as it would be more effective Anna Oakley- Teacher and G6, G5, G3 parent 1) Asked if we would be having more presentations other than the one at the April 5 Board meeting and is it the staff's hope that this decision is made at that Board meeting 2) Added that she will be disappointed if it is put to rest at the next Board meeting with all of the concerns expressed at this meeting because she does not see any of the Leadership Team getting any sleep between now and then with all of the research and analysis to be done 3) Asked if that is why Ginger was taking all of the questions down,to get the parents input back to the Board Llarveen Mans- G10 parent 1) Stated that they are new to WA and all she can see is the commitment to this school from the leaders,the staff and all of the families that have been here a long time; All of this passion makes her feel very good to be sitting right here as she does not see this anywhere else; She thanked us all Page 7 of 7