| Incoming freshmen to attend longer classes (5/08) | | Print | |
| Written by Cynthia Chau | |
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The principal announced his plan to add additional minutes to incoming freshmen schedules at a May 23 staff meeting. Under the plan, the majority of freshmen A-code classes will become B/C code, which will add an additional 25 minutes on alternate days. All freshmen classes will be affected except physical education and first year visual art programs, according to assistant principal Mary Streshly. The proposal was developed because the school is currently over 1,000 minutes short of the number of instructional minutes that the state requires, according to Streshly. According to Richard Maggi, the district’s director of school operations, the state requires 64,800 minutes per school year. Before principal Andy Ishibashi made his decision, he met with the teacher’s union, the PTSA, the administrative team and the Lowell student association student representatives on the principal’s review committee. While a majority of the teachers favored an alternative proposal to add five minutes to all A-code classes, the PTSA and the principal’s review committee favored the now finalized plan. “My final decision was very difficult for me to make because it was unanimous that teachers and department chairs wanted to extend all A codes to B/C,” Ishibashi said. Social studies teacher Barbara Blinick supported the alternative proposal. “I endorse all efforts to expand the length of class time in any A-code class,” she said. “Frankly, 40 minutes is simply not enough time to accomplish my goals. I agree with the efforts to provide more time for ninth graders, but I believe that sophomore through seniors also need that support.” Social studies teacher Jim Spellicy said he sees the principal’s decision to change the ninth grade classes to B/C code as a mistake. “Education without socialization leads to nothing but automatons,” he stated in an e-mail. “I have not taught ninth graders for some time but I do recall the difficulty they have sitting for 40 minutes, let alone 60. Lowell prides itself on going against the norm in many ways but now we are merely conforming to it.” According to UESF representative Kathy Melvin, any change to the teacher’s workday needs to be approved by the faculty. “The union recognizes pressure placed on the administration to increase instructional minutes,” Melvin said. “However, we are very uncomfortable with the process by which the decision was arrived at. Any time there is a change to the teacher’s workday or work conditions, the union needs to be consulted because we represent the teachers. This is according to Article 25 of our contract.” English department head Svein Arber agreed with Ishibashi’s decision and wants the extra time to help guide the freshmen in their English courses. “Even though almost everyone in the English department preferred the extended A code class option. I personally felt that providing freshmen with more classroom time makes a lot of sense,” he said. “The extra time is really critical to accomplish what the teacher wants to accomplish. It worked great for Advanced Placement, so it’ll work great for the freshmen.” Ishibashi said that before he spoke with the student representatives from the principal’s review committee on April 18, he was leaning toward increasing A code classes to satisfy teachers. “But after meeting with students and parents, I was convinced otherwise,” he said. Eighteen students from the meeting unanimously voted to change the freshmen A-code classes to B/C-code classes. “All of student government voted unanimously,” principal’s review committee member junior Tiffany Nguyen said. “We wanted freshmen classes to be B/C code because most freshmen have a lunch while most upper classmen don’t. We wanted to make sure that the upper classmen who don’t have a lunch period can eat during their free mods.” Streshly said she supported Ishibashi’s decision for academic reasons. “It helps target ninth graders in their skill-building year with more classroom instruction,” Streshly said. “It will let teachers use more examples and activities.” The extra instruction time provided for the freshmen will take the place of resource. “Because the freshmen are in class longer,” librarian Linda Guitron said, “they don’t have to do resource time.” |
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