To:

Members, Board of Education

From:

Terry B. Grier, Ed.D.

Date:

March 23 , 2007

RE:

Changes in Middle School Scheduling

At the March 29 board meeting, Dr. Mack McCary, Chief Academic Officer, will present to the board an overview of the changes in middle school scheduling. Several months ago, staff was asked to review the district’s middle school schedule to determine time allocated to the teaching of math and language arts.  As you can see from the attached chart, they found inconsistency in the amount of time that schools spend teaching these subjects, as well as the number of minutes each school spends teaching Encore courses each day.  All Title I middle schools and most of our other middle schools have already implemented a minimum of 75 minutes of instruction in math and language arts and are limiting Encore to 90 minutes per day. 

Next year, all middle schools will limit Encore offerings to 90 minutes per day.  Schools will make site-based decisions regarding what Encore classes and what schedule they want to use within the 90 minute Encore timeframe.  Some schools will implement an A day/B day, some will continue to offer year long band or foreign language, etc. 

District-wide there are three Physical Education teachers whose positions would be eliminated by this plan.  In addition, there is the potential for small staffing changes at each school because the decision regarding which specific Encore classes that will be offered at each school will be a site decision based on student and parent interest.  Every attempt will be made to find displaced teachers other positions in the district.

Attachment - Current Middle School Schedules