By Khalida Sarwari
The Saratoga Union School District appears to be taking steps toward appeasing parents and teachers who aren’t happy with a recent decision to implement minimum days each Wednesday.
Although the board doesn’t seem to be anywhere near overturning its decision to release students at Redwood Middle School at 12:45 p.m. and those in the elementary schools at 12:30 p.m., it did appear to be open to a compromise at its Sept. 10th meeting.
Compared to the previous meeting on the subject on Sept. 4, the board spent more time discussing a community survey to gather feedback from those who have been attending the school board meetings as well as those who haven’t. Board president Patty Buchanan suggested hiring a third party, such as a consultant, to conduct the survey.
“Let’s start the dialogue so we can get a compromise,” she said.
The board set its next meeting on the topic for Oct. 8. By then, the board plans to start the process of creating the survey and educate parents and others about why the schedule change was made through informational seminars or forums.
According to the district, the schedule was put in place to allow staff and faculty time for professional development training. Board members claim the schedule will give teachers more time during the school year to collaborate with each other and create opportunities to prepare for and implement practices such as the common core state standards and new assessment tests in the classroom.
However, many parents want to know why the teachers’ development time was created at the expense of their children’s instructional time. They’ve expressed concern also about the board implementing the schedule without their input.
Similar to the previous week, parents and teachers packed the Redwood Middle School library on Sept. 10 to voice their support or opposition to the new schedule.
A number of parents again emphasized to the board that the schedule change doesn’t work for their families or their children. Some have said the new schedule will cause financial hardship, because they would need to hire a babysitter or nanny to pick up their children from school every Wednesday afternoon. Others say that instead of being in the classroom learning, their kids would now be wasting the hours on nonacademic activities. They bemoaned the 33-minute class sessions on Wednesdays, arguing that it signifies a drastic reduction in instructional time for students. There is no time for science labs, physical education activities, art projects and exams, opponents argued. One parent called the schedule “disruptive.”
Meanwhile, a proponent of the revised schedule reminded parents that they have control over how their child spends their time after school on Wednesdays and encouraged them to look into after-school activities. Some parents said they appreciate the consistency of the new schedule and prefer it to last year’s, when minimum days took place on the first Thursday of every month.
In response to the comments, Buchanan acknowledged that the parent community feels blind-sided by the board’s decision and proposed that the board take steps toward rectifying the gap between them. But, she added, “I think the time the teachers are spending is well spent.”
Board member Victor Zhang proposed creating a task force charged with looking into the schedule change as well as improving communication with the parent community. The task force would be comprised of a representative body of parents, teachers and community members that would make recommendations to the board.
Michael Gipe, another board member, wanted to leave the schedule as it is for this school year.
“I don’t think we were all that happy with last year’s schedule either,” he said. “That’s not the solution here. Clearly, we have not hit on the universal solution. I’m going to suggest that we live with what we have now. It’s a one-year agreement.”
Next year, Gipe said, the board would make a more concerted effort to involve all stakeholders in the community.
The schedule went into effect at the beginning of the school year in August after the decision was made by the district administration and approved by the school board in June.
School board listens, but no plans to change schedule this year
