Teachers, staff votes to keep current schedule for next year

The current schedule will not change in 2013-2014 after a recent vote by faculty and staff, but the school is still seeking students' input on the idea.

A majority of 108 teachers and staff members on April 8 voted against switching to a full block schedule. Roughly 55 percent of the staff voted to keep the current bell schedule and not to implement principal Paul Robinson’s proposed block schedule.

Robinson said one of main reasons for the vote was to see where the majority of the staff members view the issue.

“It’s great that we now know where our staff stands,” Robinson said. “Although it was close, it was significant enough to say, ‘I think we need to end this and just stick to what we have.’”

If there was a much closer margin between the two sides, Robinson said he would have extended the decision to include students and parents. Robinson added he will still survey the students and parents to gather input from everyone affected.

“The next piece of information I would want to get is where our students are and where our parent community is,” Robinson said. “If the student vote is something overwhelming, we might use this as a conversation starter for a staff meeting.”

Robinson said the vote was held in math teacher Seema Patel’s room, and a panel of teachers volunteered to tally the final votes.

Although he knew that some departments viewed the full block schedule more favorably than others, Robinson said that ultimately all staff members made their own decision.

“I think that for world language and for a number of people, the more contact you have with your students, the better you feel about how they are learning,” Robinson said. “That’s why there are a number of schools who have the traditional schedule where every class is held every day.”

Although there were many advantages to the full block schedule — like daily tutorials and less weekend homework — Robinson stressed that there are many benefits to keeping the schedule the same for next year.

“One of the things that is nice about the schedule we have is that we get to start off each week kind off with every class as a weekly thing,” Robinson said. “We get to have a reset day where teachers can give introductions to new units and assign homework for the rest of the week.”

According to Robinson, the vote also brought an end to the idea of a new schedule for the time being. The topic had been brought up the previous year, but had not reached a full decision. With the voting finished, Robinson said that the issue will not likely resurface for several years.

“We kind of brought to closure what we discussed last year,” Robinson said. “I’m very happy with the decision that was made because it was what a good percentage of the staff wanted to do.”

Robinson said that no matter what side prevailed, it was a win-win situation. He feels that by getting a staff voice with the poll, he can more accurately see what is the best schedule for the school.

“We had nothing to lose on this. We were either going to keep on our successful course or try something new that might be more helpful to our students, but the at the same time might hurt certain areas,” Robinson said. “A schedule is important, but ultimately the biggest difference comes from great teachers and students.”