From April 11-13, all faculty members scheduled to return to HHS in the 2011-2012 school year (faculty members who announced their retirement this year or who are teaching on a one-year contract were not allowed to vote) were given the chance to endorse or reject the trimester concept via a blind ballot.
Before casting their vote, faculty members were asked to consider their level of commitment to the schedule as a framework for teaching and learning as well as to the work necessary to bring it from concept to successfully-implemented reality. Further, they were asked to consider whether or not they believed a move from our current schedule to the trimester represented a step toward or away from meeting our school mission: to equip all students with transferrable skills, promote academic independence, foster social responsibility, and inspire a passion for learning.
The ballot distributed to faculty members contained the following language:
The trimester schedule at Homestead High School would be developed based on the following parameters/drivers:
- Students are required to enroll in at least four classes per trimester.
- Teachers teach four classes per trimester.
- Three-trimester courses are limited to preserve student choice, maintain financial neutrality, and manage class sizes; administrators determine the length of courses with input and feedback from instructors; music courses run for three trimesters.
- Flex time is included in the schedule; the frequency, length and timing of flex periods will be determined at a later date.
- Available hours beyond the DPI requirement of 1,137 are used to provide flex time in the schedule and to provide release time during final exams as available.
- As a rule and not an exception, teachers are expected to provide three unique interactions with content in a given period; at least one of those interactions must require class-wide verbal participation from students.
- Curricula are reviewed and revised prior to implementation of the trimester to ensure their viability in the trimester arrangement.
- Teachers collaborate with peers and administrators prior to implementation of the trimester to increase alignment of outcomes and expectations for courses taught by multiple teachers; alignment of curricula and course expectations is a requirement, not a suggestion or recommendation.
- Early release, faculty learning, and available MTAP and summer curriculum time in the summer of 2011, throughout the 2011-12 school year, and in the summer of 2012 are dedicated to curriculum, instruction and assessment review and revision.
I am committed to the trimester concept as outlined above and believe that the schedule should be implemented beginning in the 2012-2013 school year.
______ Yes
______ No
The results of the faculty feedback vote are as follows:
Committed to implementing the trimester schedule in 2012-2013: 66
Not committed to implementing the trimester schedule in 2012-2013: 7
So, just over 90% of all eligible faculty who chose to vote endorse a move to the trimester.
This information will be taken into consideration when Eric Dimmitt and I draft our report to the School Board that will be presented on May 16.
This information will be taken into consideration when Eric Dimmitt and I draft our report to the School Board that will be presented on May 16.
