Jul 16, 2009 3 min read

CALIFORNIA – The California Area School Board Wednesday, after lengthy discussion, gave final approval to the intermediate middle school program that it approved in concept earlier this year. The program groups fifth and sixth graders separate from both the elementary students and the middle school students, in an academic and extracurricular program geared toward their stage of development. School director John Bayer questioned the teachers’ schedules, noting that the sixth-grade teachers would be ending their day at the same time as the students, prior to students leaving on the buses. District superintendent Linda Mancini said afternoon bus duties would be assigned to others in the building, freeing the sixth-grade teachers to provide tutoring to students in the morning. Parents who wanted tutoring for their children could either drop them off at school early or get permission for the students to ride the middle school/high school bus instead of the elementary/intermediate school bus in the morning.

Mancini noted that the school board does not generally vote on the class schedule and she was surprised the board was following the scheduling so closely this year.

“This schedule works. If the teachers don’t have kids for tutoring, they’ll be working on curriculum mapping; there’s any number of things they can do,” Mancini said. “We have a small school. We’re all going to pull together to make sure everything is done. You don’t vote on schedules.”

“We’re not voting on a schedule, we’re voting on a program,” said school director Walter Moluski.

Mancini agreed to change the teachers’ schedule for this year to have the fifth- and sixth-grade teachers start at the same time, with all tutoring done after school. Parents will need to provide transportation home from the school after tutoring.

The board took several items off the July agenda, moving them to the August meeting. One item that was moved was the creation of an integration technology specialist position for grades K-12. That person would work with teachers at all grade levels to teach them to use various new technologies in the classroom, including holding school workshops on the use of Promethean boards, Smart boards and other technology.

The work was previously done by the grant-funded Schools for the Future coach, who only dealt with the high school teachers. Mancini said the position is meant to be temporary. The board decided to postpone action to make sure the job description is properly worded so it is not construed as being a permanent position by the teachers’ union.