Moses Lake schools to start late

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake schools are having late starts on Mondays next fall to allow teachers some collaboration time.

Moses Lake school board members unanimously approved the switch from two-hour early release days on Fridays to late Monday mornings. For 29 Mondays next school year, elementary schools have a one hour and 15-minute late start, while high school and junior high students start one hour later than normal.

Elementary schools are making up for the late start by adding 15 minutes to the end of the day. High school and junior high are making up for the missed time during the school day by taking time from the students’ lunch period.

“We felt that this was a more effective trade-off of time than the two-hour early release,” said Dave Balcom, the district’s secondary executive director. “Parents may struggle with this initially, but now they won’t have to worry about those early release days.”

There will still be some early release days throughout the year because of parent/teacher conferences and holidays.

“The late starts are not impacting hours of teaching,” said Linda McKay, the district’s elementary executive director. “In fact, our new system actually adds more time in the classroom with students compared to the original early release time.”

Collaboration time is for teachers working together to meet a common goal and focus on ways to improve student learning. The time is facilitated discussion where teachers identify student work and act on student education needs in a timely manner, Balcom explained.

“We really want to have a system in place for our students so they can receive the best education,” Balcom said. “This means we need to look more alike in teaching styles and methods by talking together.”

McKay and Balcom worked on the new schedule with Moses Lake Education Association members (MLEA). Out of 400 members, 319 teachers completed a survey on collaboration time and brought ideas to district employees, McKay reported.

“MLEA really supported our effort,” said Michelle Price, district superintendent. “Around 76 percent approved our collaboration scheduled time as presented. I feel that we are all on the same page.”

Balcom and McKay discussed the collaboration with a professional development committee Tuesday afternoon to figure out more details. McKay and Balcom are working on scheduling the collaboration time into next year’s school calendar.

“Collaboration just makes sense,” McKay said. “We have some schools that have three different math classes and it is essential for those teachers to get together to create standards and objectives so the students leave the school knowing the same information. Collaboration provides foundations so teachers can figure out how to reach students at every level.”

Under the new program, school district buses are running one hour later on Mondays. Each school is evaluating their Monday morning schedules for 2010 to 2011 to see the impact the change in time has on before and after school programs.

“We still need to sit down and figure out what the school days are going to look like and create a descriptive calendar for those days,” Balcom said. “We should know more about what the calendar will look like May 1. The goal is to be able to tell families about the new schedule as early as possible so they can start planning for late starts.”

Collaboration time is needed because school scheduling limitations do not allow for teachers to meet. Teacher planning time before and after school is used to meet with students and parents, tutor students, align curriculum with state standards, prepare lessons and make copies.

Moses Lake School District teachers can’t arrive early to school or stay late after school to collaborate because they are contracted to work a 7.5-hour day. Public schools are required by state law to have students in class for a specific number of instructional hours and the new schedule places the district within the instructional time requirements, Balcom explained.

“When teachers have been asked by the school board what they need from the board to make work more effective, the teachers have always asked for more time to collaborate,” Balcom said.

To demonstrate collaboration time is working, principals in each school are reporting results and discussions to the school board members.

“Research would tell us that collaboration is one of the most effective tools for improving instruction,” Balcom said. “I don’t think any one of us can say working in isolation is best. The best model is to come together and talk about work to learn from each other.”