Schools

New Middle School Schedule OK'd for Next Year

Shorter class periods at Keith Valley Middle School are expected to help with the district's staffing reductions.

Good-bye semester-long courses. Hello shorter classes taught the entire school year.

Beginning in the 2013-2014 school year, Keith Valley Middle School students will have 60-minute instructional periods for English/language arts, math, science and social studies instead of the current 84-minute classes.

Currently, students take a semester's worth of science and social studies courses. But, as part of the change approved during Monday night's school board meeting, middle schoolers will take all of those courses during the school year. 

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Keith Valley administrators had recommended the schedule change during a board meeting in March. At that time, officials had said that the new schedule would allow for more "inter-disciplinary work."

In a memo to the school board, Superintendent Curtis Griffin said that, under the current schedule, science and social studies classes "cover content over skills."

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"As a result, reading and writing may occur in the content areas, but it is not explicitly instructed," Griffin wrote.

Under the new schedule, four teams of core subject teachers per grade level–whittled down from six teams per grade level currently–would oversee about 100 students for a "true teaming" approach to learning.

"The practice of teaming has shown promise for success by helping core curriculum teachers work together to ensure that students are gaining a firm grasp of the essential subjects," Griffin wrote.

The schedule change, coupled with declining enrollment district-wide will also help the district as the administration seeks to reduce and reallocate staff. At Keith Valley, Griffin said 16 sections, as compared to the current 18 sections, could mean the "potential reduction of four staff members" next school year. 


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