Farb's+Master+Schedule+2008-2009

=This is the place for us to discuss our master schedule. Add ideas, edit ideas make comments.= Hi Everyone-

I have been trying to "wordsmith" this email for the past hour and hope if there are any concerns with the wording, you will talk to me in the morning with any questions or concerns. My intent is to make sure you know that I always want to be as transparent as possible.

I will be getting our budget workbooks for next year in a few days. We will have a month to figure this all out, so we're not under the gun yet. We have been meeting with the Master Schedule Committee and working on a variety of concepts to present to the staff. Concepts, not schedules. Millie has been "playing around" with some of the ideas. But everything is on paper at this point. There are a number of parameters that do not give us the ultimate flexibility with any schedule that we would like to see. Some of them are:

We know that because of budget reductions we cannot have less than 5 periods per day (plus Advisory). All teachers must have the same number of minutes in their prep period as the number of minutes in a classroom period. For example, you cannot have some classes be 45 minutes long and others be 70 minutes. PE is the only class that must have 200 minutes in 10 days for 6th grade and 400 minutes in 7th and 8th grade over a 10 day period. All other subjects do not have a required number of minutes. We need to try to offer courses within the credentials of the existing staff. And we're trying to keep as many people as possible; obviously. There have been no definite plans made at this point as far as any schedule goes. No decisions have been made regarding anything. We are actually pretty stumped when it comes to electives because there have been many wonderful suggestions from all of you and we can't seem to make them all fit. We can give you a crash course in scheduling if you are interested, but suffice to say, it is very complicated and no schedule is perfect.

If you have any ideas or suggestions for a unique schedule and the number of minutes in a period, or for anything else that relates to the master schedule, please email us. "Reply to all" when you have an idea so that everyone can hear what's going on. Maybe we should set up a blog??? Leigh?

On Thursday afternoon we will pass out a form to fill out. It will ask what you are interested in teaching next year and if you would be willing to teach an elective. We'll talk more about it on Thursday. Please be on time for the staff development. 2:20 in the library. Thank you for your patience. Please know that we will make no decisions until everyone has been consulted. By contract, all certificated staff must vote on any final schedule change.

Susan

=Schedule Ideas=