Reed School Schedule Changes Reviewed

By Eliza Hallabeck

Roughly one month before the 2010-11 school year began, Reed Intermediate School Principal Sharon Epple said she was excited to unveil a new schedule at her school — a schedule that had been in the making over the course of the 2009-10 academic year.

School administrators, outside consultants, and parents spent multiple meetings privately and publicly discussing Reed’s schedule during the 2009-10 academic year.

Changes to the fifth and sixth grade schedules included a shortened length of time in homerooms and some lengthened academic periods. In August, Dr Epple said implementing the new schedules would also work toward Reed’s School Improvement Plan, which works within the school district’s Strategic Improvement Plan.

This week, Dr Epple reflected on how the schedule has been working at Reed since the start of the 2010-11 academic year.

Prior to implementation, Dr Epple had said that glitches can be expected within any new schedule; this week she said she has found no consequential glitches yet, saying overall, the new schedule has been manageable and “fantastic.”

“It is the increase in instructional time and consistency we were looking for,” said Dr Epple.

At the fifth grade level, Dr Epple said the schedule includes a 60-minute block for reading instruction each day, and for the sixth grade it includes that block for five of the seven days in the rotating schedule. There are also extended blocks of instruction time in the afternoon for clusters, according to Dr Epple.

Two courses, Project Adventure and Chinese music for sixth grade students, Dr Epple said, allowed for the schedule to offer more options for students. Last year, Dr Epple continued, there were some classes with larger class sizes, but this year class sizes are more regulated.

While some have voiced concern over the implementation for the Chinese music program, and at recent Board of Education meetings Vice Chair Debbie Leidlein has repeatedly asked for the course’s curriculum, Dr Epple said adding the Chinese music course at Reed was one of the options the school looked into last spring.

“I think we were constantly thinking of different ideas,” said Dr Epple.

After the intermediate school entertained delegates last school year from China through the school district’s newly named Newtown International Center for Education, Dr Epple said the Chinese Music course really got her attention.

While the school was considering multiple options to add to the schedule, Dr Epple said, “This is the one we thought really connected to concept-based learning and the international initiative of the district.”

The Chinese music course ties the study of China, which is in the sixth grade curriculum according to the principal, and the study of music technology together.

The new schedules, Dr Epple said, also work toward the district’s goal of focusing on 21st Century skills. For example, Dr Epple continued, the Project Adventure course aligns teamwork and cooperative learning.

Dr Epple also said, with schedules there will always be another initiative to strive toward.

This week, Ms Leidlein, who is also a Reed parent, said her concerns regarding Chinese music are less to do with the course and more to do with the implementation of how the course was brought into the schedule.

Ms Leidlein said board members did receive a handout on the course, but said there was a lack of communication and documentation regarding starting the course at the intermediate school.

Adding the course to Reed’s schedule has also made Ms Leidlein question the district’s ability to add a foreign language program to the elementary schools and the intermediate school, but said that would need to be looked into further before it could be considered.

While Ms Leidlein said she has been “very happy” with her child’s experience at Reed, she also knows she does not speak for everyone. After the last school year, Ms Leidlein said she thinks people are questioning more practices. She also said the school board and the district need to have the answers ready when those questions are brought up.

“I think that I hear more concern about teachers and accountability,” said Ms Leidlein, regarding any concerns she has heard from parents this year. “I still think the schedule needs work, but I think it made a lot of progress. And I think a great deal of progress has been made because there is a more equitable distribution of instruction hours between all clusters.”