Dear CNMT community,

As we enter budget development season, we need to start with an evaluation of our current program in order to determine where are our greatest needs. Where we have the greatest needs we should dedicate resources, which are dwindling each year.

Our most important resource is time. This week I visited Mr. Parral’s economics class, in which he explained to students about budgets. He told me after that because students generally don’t have much spending money, he uses the example of time as a resource that they need to think about how they are budgeting. That’s true for our school as well. Time is our most precious resource, and we need to think very carefully about the way we budget it.

I am happy with our block schedule, yet I’ve been doing some research about other ways to structure a block schedule to maximize the time where it is most needed, as well as address other complaints I have heard this year.

Some of the concerns that I’ve heard about our current bell schedule are:

1. Teachers have too many different classes, so they see a lot of different students over the two days.
2. Students have eight classes, so they get overwhelmed and confused.
3. Students forget what they did in the last class because they skip a day.
4. The week is uneven, because some classes meet three times and others meet two times, and for the ones that meet two times, one of those days is shorter (banked day Tuesdays).

Garfield High School has shown some remarkable growth in their test scores in the last couple of years, which coincides with changing their bell schedule. What they did is created a hybrid of a quarter system with a 4 x 4 schedule and a semester system with a 2 x 8 schedule, our current schedule.

The classes on the 4 x 4 schedule meet every day, all year for 85 min. These classes are quarters, so that students can earn five credits every 10 weeks. The classes that do not meet every day are still on a semester, and they meet every other day, like our current schedule.

In order to avoid uneven weeks, Garfield moved their banked days to Mondays and they make every period meet on Monday for a half hour. Since many of the classes meet every day, those classes meet next to each other on that banked day, so they actually have an hour. The other days: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, alternate between periods 1-4 or 5-8, so they have two full meetings of each class every week.

It may be impossible for us to move our banked days to Monday, but we can still do something similar with our Tuesday staying as a short day with all periods.

The important question is how they determine which classes will meet every day on a 4 x 4 schedule. Looking at their data, Garfield determined that, similar to us, math and English are the areas that are priorities. This is because they are the classes that count the most on the API and also the classes that create the skills that students need for their other subjects.

Because of this, Garfield has every student take math and English every day on a block schedule for all four years.

They also noticed that they had a very low passing rate on the AP exams, so all AP classes meet every day. Garfield also has biology in the ninth grade, and there was a very high failure rate, which is the same across the district, so they make that class meet every day as well.

In the past couple of years, their biology passing rate has increased 20%, and their math proficient and advanced rate has gone up 17%. They have also improved in English. I haven’t had a chance to check on their AP results yet.

Making a change like this would effect our staffing decisions, which is why it’s important to keep it in mind when we are planning our budget. Teachers are the major portion of any school’s budget.

I have been talking to the principals of the Magnet and the School of Law and Government, because we would like to keep our schedules aligned, so that students still have the ability to passport when necessary. So far they also seem open to making similar changes to what Garfield has done with their master schedule.

We will be discussing these ideas as a faculty, with parents, and the Shared Decision-Making Council for all the small schools. I encourage you to get involved, ask questions and make your opinion heard. You can start by commenting on this post.

Educator of the Week:

This week I would like to inaugurate a new feature of the Weekly Update, the Educator of the Week. This week I would like to recognize our Coordinator, Dr. Arturo Ibarra. Dr. Ibarra was previously a health teacher and the Bilingual Coordinator at Roosevelt. He has a particular interest in working with English Learners, which is part of why he was excited about the possibility of working with CNMT, since we are one of two schools at Roosevelt with an ESL program.

This year, Dr. Ibarra has been working tirelessly to support our English Learners, and has achieved unprecedented passing rates on the CELDT. We are looking forward to reclassifying a greater number of students this Spring once the grades and CST results come out.

Dr. Ibarra has also been taking the lead with parent involvement, leading our FAT Team. He applied for and won a FACE grant from the Partnership, which we are using to start a series of parent workshops led by Gemas – starts March 8! He also has been leading another group of parent workshops around important topics like the CAHSEE.

Speaking of the CAHSEE, Dr. Ibarra is also responsible for all of our intervention programs, including afterschool tutoring and our CAHSEE preparation program, which has been running for the past four weeks, and will be meeting three days a week, starting tomorrow.

Dr. Ibarra is our testing coordinator, managing all of our tests, including the CST, CMA, CAHSEE, the periodic assessment, NAEP, CELDT, and more. In addition, he is responsible for all of our categorical budgets such as Title I, bilingual, and leading the CEAC and ELAC committees.

Needless to say, it’s not an easy job, but Dr. Ibarra takes everything on with a positive attitude and a strong work ethic. We are incredibly fortunate and grateful to have him as part of our team this year. Thank you, Dr. Ibarra.

Upcoming events:

Mon Feb 27, 2012

• Gilmore Out
• 6:30am – 5:30pm Gertner/Dean Visit to Kearny DMD and CTA
• JV Softball vs. Wilson @ 2:30pm
• 3:15pm – 5pm CAHSEE 380 Classes

Tue Feb 28, 2012

• All day AVID Awareness workshop
• 1:30pm – 3pm Banked Day – Grade Level Flex Planning
• 3:15pm – 4:15pm CNMT Instructional Leadership Team Meeting – R208

Wed Feb 29, 2012

• All day AVID Awareness workshop
• 10am – 12:30pm College Summit Presentation and Tour – Arleta High School
• 1:10pm – 1:40pm Flex Reps – R222
• 2pm – 2:30pm CNMT Office Staff Meeting
• 3:15pm – 5pm CAHSEE 380 Class
• 3:30pm – 5pm SDMC meeting – Penthouse

Thu Mar 8, 2012

• 8am – 4pm Gertner at PLAS Leadership Conference - PLAS offices
• 3:15pm – 5pm CAHSEE 380 Class
• 5:30pm – 7:30pm Roosevelt/CNMT Parent Workshops - Student Cafeteria
• Verifications Due @ 7:20am ISIS Office