Proposed Pat-Med Schedule Changes Discussed By BOE

Patchogue-Medford School District’s Board of Education had a variety of reactions and questions to Thursday’s special Patchogue-Medford Board of Education meeting discussing a proposed 2013-2014 academic schedule that would create earlier school days with longer class times.

As previously reported, the proposal moves up bus arrival 15 minutes earlier for the high school and middle schools and 20 minutes earlier for elementary schools. Current periods of downtime, such as between bus arrival and first period on the high school level, are being reduced in the proposed schedule in order to allot more time in class. A PDF of the proposed schedule posted on the district website can be viewed by clicking here. Also on the district website is a PDF of the full presentation of the proposed schedule given by assistant superintendent of curriculum Lori Cannetti at the meeting, which can be viewed and downloaded by clicking here.

During the presentation, Cannetti emphasized that the new schedule moves the professional period for teachers to be in the afternoon only, which will allow students the option of attending after-school extra help sessions. Under the current schedule, teachers may offer two sessions of extra help a week that take place in either the morning or the afternoon. Should the session be in the morning, the student or the student’s parent/guardian would have to provide transportation. Having all of the extra help sessions take place in the afternoon allows all students to get home using the district’s late buses.

“What this will allow us to do is make sure every child regardless of their situation, if they want to stay for extra help, they can, because we can get them home to their houses after extra help,” Cannetti said. “In the same token, we are paying for these late bus routes and I don’t think we are really using them to our advantage.”

Trustee Joseph Loschiavo asked Cannetti if the proposed class lengths can be moved into the current bus schedule so the district would not have to make children ride earlier buses, and Cannetti said she would research that to see if that would be possible. Loschiavo also voiced concerns about having kids out of school, and possibly roaming the streets, at an earlier hour.

Trustee Anthony O’Brien liked the idea to get more students the ability to attend extra help, but was concerned that student instructional time is still less than neighboring districts. Cannetti said that her only comment on that is that the instructional day is built around existing contracts with the teachers.

O’Brien also asked about how it would affect students who have breakfast in the cafeteria in the morning, and Cannetti said that those students would be able to request from their bus driver to be allowed off their school bus early.

Trustee Christine Rignola asked about how not having extra help sessions in the morning would affect after school sports and extracurricular activities. Cannetti said that under the existing schedules, teachers’ work days are not over and that clubs and sports do not start until the end of the work day. This includes student athletes at times waiting for their coaches to finish an extra help session, Cannetti said.

Rignola also asked about before and after care, and Cannetti said that there is also a proposal to possibly start before care at 6:45 a.m. Rignola also asked about sending a survey to teachers to find out how many children are currently using extra help.

Trustee Donald Atkins asked for a clarification on the re-shuffling, comparing it to mixing cassette tapes. Cannetti emphasized that the high school is currently the only school in the district that gives a morning and afternoon professional period option to teachers, and the proposed change would move that period to just the afternoon, freeing up the morning minutes currently allocated. Trustee Brett Houdek also clarified with Cannetti the number of additional minutes of instruction added to students, which he said would hopefully help improve scores.

Board president Thomas Donofrio asked Cannetti about concerns with having students on bus stops at early morning times when it is dark outside. Cannetti said that other school districts have students picked up as early as 6:05 a.m., and as such it’s not unusual for buses to arrive at stops at those times.

As previously reported, Donofrio said that the schedule might be voted on at the June 24 Board of Education meeting at South Ocean Middle School. The schedule may be voted on as it currently is, an alternate schedule might be voted on or no schedule might be voted on at all (which would keep the current schedule).

Resident reactions to the presentation will be in a separate Monday morning post that will also be added to Patch’s School news section.

What are your thoughts on the proposed schedule? Voice them by typing them into the comments section below this story.

Also Check Out:

BOE May Vote On Proposed Schedule June 24

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