Teachers uneasy about new 90 minute time slot for middle school
students to take on math each day
Gilroy – In an effort to remedy the district’s low math proficiency, the school board decided to tack on an eighth period to all middle school schedules, converting math from a 45-minute to 90-minute class. The move, which received unanimous approval at Thursday’s board meeting, was not greeted with open arms by teachers.
The educators said they were kept out of the loop on an issue that directly impacts their profession and they’re apprehensive about a new slot of time district officials are referring to as a “non-teaching period.”
“This is a very complicated issue,” said Gilroy Teachers Association President Michelle Nelson. “We understand that the math scores need to improve, I just don’t think this is the way to do it.”
Nelson is consulting with the GTA’s lawyer to look at the legal ramifications of the move. But the new schedule will be implemented in the fall, regardless.
“The board can take action on student instructional minutes and then we have a legal obligation to negotiate the impact of that decision (with the teacher’s union),” said Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Linda Piceno.
The district’s abysmal arithmetic scores on standardized tests are a sore spot for the Gilroy Unified School District. Less than half of elementary students, 30 percent of middle schoolers and only 11 percent of high school students are proficient in math.
This year, district officials and teachers have been holding math instruction under a microscope. Math seminars with experts have been staged and analysis of the subject has been a constant.
Since math scores trickle down in Gilroy, hitting a district low at the high school, most agree the solution is to attack the problem at its root – in the lower grades. But the idea to add extra time to the middle school schedule actually resulted from a discussion about electives during Middle School Program Alignment Committee meetings.
There were concerns because students enrolled in intervention classes didn’t have the time to take electives. Under the new schedule students will spend two periods in math, just as they currently do in language arts.
The eighth period will allow nearly all students to take an elective. Teachers will continue to teach six classes and have one prep. period. The difference will be the addition of a “non-teaching period.”
What teachers will be required to do during that period has yet to be determined. But Piceno has an idea.
“We don’t want to call it a prep because that’s a misnomer,” she said.
There are many possibilities but district officials are looking at using the time for teacher collaboration, to analyze student performance data, receive additional training or develop curriculum, Piceno said.
That’s the element of the new schedule Valerie Kelly wasn’t happy to hear about. Although the Ascencion Solorsano Middle School algebra teacher was excited about more time more math instruction she doesn’t want directives to come from the district dictating what teachers do during the “non-teaching period” and she doesn’t want to lose her precious after school tutoring.
“I’m excited about having the additional time for math,” she said. “I’m a proponent of math and have been asking for that for a long time. This is just a heaven-send for us in middle school. It’s really awesome.”
But Kelly thinks the people at each site know best how to spend their extra time, “where we are deciding what needs to be stressed rather than having a menu of jobs and having to do specific jobs at specific times.”
Also, Kelly spends an hour and a half, four days a week after school tutoring students. She cherishes the time because it gives her a chance to work with small groups of students one-on-one.
She wonders if transportation will be an issue under the new schedule and if the tutoring will still be possible.
Phyllis Bartu, a resource teacher at Brownell Middle School, is angry about the non-teaching period and the extra period and she also thinks the school district did the whole thing in a covert way.
“I have to think it was done in a kind of sneaky way because there were a lot of chances to talk to us and they didn’t,” she said.
Since additional time will be added to the day, the district will need to hire nine more teachers which will cost an additional $580,000. The funds will be derived from the district’s $2 million surplus. District officials and board members compiled a list of priorities and dedicating a significant chunk to increased instructional time and increased compensation for employees, were placed at the top.
Trustee David McRae said he thinks the board’s decision to emphasize those top two priorities really shows that GUSD treasures its students.
And board Vice President Tom Bundros said the hike in instructional hours “is in the best interest of the kids.”
