[Editor’s Note: The President of the Assn. of Classified Employees sent this email to her members yesterday.]
Good afternoon,
As you may have already heard, the School Board did not approve the School Calendar we negotiated for next year.
Despite the Calendar Committee’s hard work and the Survey Monkey results, the Board felt that the unions had not taken into consideration the needs of the students when they negotiated a calendar in which school begins after Labor Day.
There is a core group of teachers at the high school that are concerned about when testing falls, and in an effort to schedule mid-terms before Winter Break and give AP students the opportunity to have more instruction before AP testing takes place, they are looking for a much earlier start date. I also understand that the CIF schedule for sports does not line up well with our school calendar and Mr.[Jerry] Chabola [Athletic Director] wanted changes made to accommodate the CIF schedule.
In looking at the survey results, however, it is clear that the majority of the teachers and parents preferred that school start later and the calendar was set according to what the majority had indicated they wanted.
While we understand the reasoning behind suggesting that changes be made, the time to address these issues is before the calendar is finalized, not after. We work very hard to make this a democratic process by using Survey Monkey in addition to forming a committee to represent the best interests of all stakeholders.
It is important that the work behind the process be recognized and respected. Since the calendar is a negotiable item, it is equally important that the Board take the process into consideration before rejecting the results.
I would appreciate your feedback on this issue, please.
Ms. Hamme may be contacted at antiquer01@aol.com
