PENNINGTON: High school faculty opposed to schedule change

Only 9 percent back principal’s proposal

By John Tredrea, Staff Writer
   Only 9 percent of Hopewell Valley Central High School’s faculty supports the high school schedule change recently recommended to the school board by Principal Michael Daher, an official of the local teachers union said.
   ”With the inadequate planning and funding available, 91 percent of the staff at CHS cannot and do not support the proposed schedule,” Barbara Kucinski-Gilbert told the school board at its Dec. 15 meeting. Ms. Kucinski-Gilbert, a French teacher at CHS for 25 years, is that school’s lead representative in the Hopewell Valley Education Association (HVEA), or teachers union.
   Ms. Kucinski-Gilbert told the board the union had polled the teachers after Mr. Daher made his proposal on the schedule change to the school board last month.
   Mr. Daher wants to change his school’s schedule from an eight-period day to a rotating six-period day. He said the change would eliminate widespread schedule conflicts between wellness (physical education) and science lab and between lunch and science lab. He also said it would mean many more students would get all their first-choice courses.
   The current schedule has eight 42-minute periods. Mr. Daher wants to switch to six 58-minute periods (first period would actually be 64 minutes long, but it would include homeroom, which currently is held as a separate entity). All students would get a 42-minute lunch after third period.
   The board was wary of the proposal for two reasons: cost and faculty reaction.
   Mr. Daher said the new schedule could require up to five new teachers, at an estimated cost of $65,000 per teacher, for pay and benefits.
   Board member Daniel O’Connor said that, while the proposal had obvious academic merit, he’d “have a hard time supporting these costs” in the current economic climate.
   Board members Leigh Peterson and Jim Wulf also expressed concerns about the cost.
   The board has said it would study Mr. Daher’s proposal.
   ”We asked Mr. Daher for the opportunity to share our thoughts, concerns and questions with him during an afternoon workshop,” Ms. Kucinski-Gilbert said. Among the topics discussed was the West Windsor school district, which has a rotating high school schedule. The HVEA has met recently with West Windsor high school faculty, she said.
   She said that, during the meeting with Mr. Daher, “many staff members took this opportunity to raise numerous concerns about funding, staffing, maintaining our rich comprehensive course offerings, and the need for training and curriculum revision. West Windsor teachers repeatedly mentioned the need to cut out parts of curriculum, a rise in class size in many instances, the need for additional janitorial staff for clean-up after the single lunch period. They also mentioned that the only way that they could adequately plan and keep up with this new schedule was due to their two prep periods per day and only one duty period every five days, as opposed to the one prep period per day that we have.”
   Mr. Daher was asked for “a mock-up schedule to be run to see if, in fact, all of our current course offerings could be maintained. He told us this could not be done, despite our offer of help to create it. We also stressed the need for training and the time and money for curriculum revision prior to implementation of his proposed schedule. We strongly believe that without this training, time to assess curriculum and fair remuneration we would be foolishly rushing into something that is far too important to rush into and risk failure,” she added.
   The results of the HVEA poll of the high school faculty were as follows, Ms. Kucinski-Gilbert said.
   Question 1 — I support the proposed schedule and current implementation plan based on approximately $350,000.00 in funding — 8 votes (9 percent).
   Question 2 — I support the proposed schedule in principle but have concerns regarding inadequate planning and funding — 55 votes (62.5 percent).
   Question 3 — I do not support the proposed schedule regardless of additional planning and funding — 25 votes (28.4 percent).