|
|
Welcome to the new home of Lee's Summit Tribune. We are dedicated to providing you the most current and accurate news and events in Lee's Summit
 | |  |
|
R-7 Board of Education approves two-year calendar including weekly time for structured teacher collaboration
Nov. 18, 2011
Two student attendance days added to each year
The Lee's Summit R-7 Board of Education approved a recommendation for a two-year school calendar at its Nov. 17 meeting. The new calendar, which is for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years, includes weekly time for structured teacher collaboration.
During the meeting, Board members heard a report from the R-7 Collaboration-Calendar Team, a group of staff members and parents, about the value of weekly time for teachers to work on improving instruction and ultimately student success. During the weekly collaboration sessions, teaches will work together to review student data, evaluate student work, assess where students are in the learning process and design targeted instruction to address the needs of each student. Team members added that the time would be different from teachers' planning periods, and they would not be completing other work-day tasks such as returning parent phone calls, attending staff meetings, grading papers or answering e-mails.
In addition, team members stated that this time would be dedicated to strengthening targeted instruction for students, a foundation of the district's Professional Learning Communities initiative. Research has shown that regular collaboration among teachers improves instructional practices and academic performance by students.
"Our children are individuals with different learning styles, challenges and strengths," said Misty Rigdon, a parent member of the Collaboration-Calendar Team, "yet our district is committed to preparing each child for life. This task requires time for teachers to put their heads together and come up with solutions. I am excited to see what differences it will make for my kids when teachers have time set aside specifically to plan activities and instruction based on students' individual needs."
The structured teacher collaboration time had been a recommendation from the school district's TEAM Lee's Summit, an employee group, for several years. Finding a way to incorporate regular collaboration time into the school calendar was also a direction from the Board of Education through its Board-Superintendent Agreement Action Items, approved last summer, and is included as a strategy within the district's 2011-16 strategic plan. This document, known as the Comprehensive School Improvement Plan, was developed by a community team last spring and approved by the Board of Education in summer 2011.
One of the Collaboration-Calendar Team's goals was to provide a recommendation that would be fiscally sustainable during times of cost containment, and the plan approved by the Board of Education is able to incorporate collaboration into the calendar at a reasonable cost.
In addition, the newly approved calendar makes up for losses in teacher collaboration time due to recent budget cuts, including a reduction in collaboration-plan time at the middle and high schools as teachers have been asked to teach an extra hour within the school day in recent years. Elementary teachers have also lost scheduled time previously set aside for collaboration that was made possible by utilization of substitute teachers.
"Teachers need time to work together to plan for success," said Dr. David McGehee, R-7 superintendent, "and we were not able to financially sustain this in the way we had done so in the past. This plan balances the need for cost containment with a proposal that will ultimately improve instruction and learning and produce the best results for our students."
Collaboration time is designed to ensure that teachers have the tools they need to help each student be successful – whether they are struggling with a specific concept and need additional assistance or have already mastered the lesson and need an extra challenge.
For example, second-grade teachers could use collaboration time to discuss student performance on a specific science unit to determine which students require additional help and which students need enrichment activities. During the structured collaboration time, educators would develop specific plans for each student that are tailored to the student's learning style, abilities and unique needs.
This is the first time that the Board of Education has approved a two-year calendar, which had been a request from numerous parents for a number of years. The two-year calendar will be approved annually so that parents will always be able to plan well in advance for family activities such as vacations.
The two-year calendar adds two attendance days to the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years and also includes a weekly one-hour late start on Wednesdays to provide structured teacher collaboration time. In all, the 2012-13 and 2013-14 calendars include 172 student attendance days and 1,074 attendance hours, compared to 170 attendance days and 1,084 attendance hours for the current year.
Members of the Collaboration-Calendar Team also discussed day-care options for the late-start Wednesdays. The group has worked with R-7 Kids Country before- and after-school care program and is developing a reasonably priced option for parents seeking child care for the weekly late-start days.
Plans call for the cost of the Wednesday late-start day-care hour to be not more than $5 per child and not more than $10 per family per week through Lee's Summit R-7 Kids Country before- and after-school care program. R-7 staff members are also developing a sliding scale for families qualifying for the federal free and reduced lunch program. For families already enrolled in Kids Country for child care throughout the week, there would be no increase in weekly fees for the additional hour on Wednesdays.
The first day of school for 2012-13 will be Aug. 15 with the last day (pending make-up snow days) as May 15. The 2013-14 calendar's first day is Aug. 14 with the last day (also dependent on snow days) as May 19.
Parents will be receiving additional information about the calendar approval and day-care options through their schools. The Collaboration-Calendar Team's complete report is also available at the Board of Education meeting website by visiting http://www.boarddocs.com/mo/lsr7sd/Board.nsf/Public and selecting "Items for Decision" within the Nov. 17 regular meeting. You may also view the 2012-13 and 2013-14 calendars at http://www.leesummit.k12.mo.us/districtinfo/calendars.htm.
| |
 | |  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sean Ahern of Lee's Summit Near the Finish Line of Pikes Peak Marathon
|
|
|
I am extremely disappointed in the district leadership over this issue. This was voted down by 84% of the parents two years ago. The way they went about this gives the appearance they were trying to pass something under the table because of it's unpopularity with parents. Also, the leaderships recent comments in another publication made it clear they did not care about the opinions of the taxpayers and parents.