How does a 10th or 11th grader have a GAEL period, but only take six periods? What about the arts programs? How would they be impacted by this plan?

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1 How does a 10th or 11th grader have a GAEL period, but only take six periods? When you think of a 7- period day, it will look like this: six academic classes, but one free period. Students may have English, GAEL, math, history, for example. The GAEL period will be built into schedule as if it s a class, but it will be their GAEL period. To what do you attribute the success of your sophomores, juniors & graduating seniors (those who didn't go through this supposedly successful new program)? We know we have a lot of successful students here. We are a high- performing school, our students are well- prepared by our middle schools. Many of our students do have the tools they need to be prepared. But we have seen a significant drop in the number of students with D/F's, where we have targeted interventions. What about the arts programs? How would they be impacted by this plan? Students will still be taking the same art classes as always. We expect no negative impact on arts. We still have an art requirement, and we offer a wide variety of art classes. We are looking changes in band, moving symphonic to zero period and jazz band to a time during the day. Students will have access to VAPA (Visual and Performing Arts) classes. Why not give freshmen their health class during the FMP at lunch? The Health class is a graduation requirement with specific topics. Two reason we like moving Health classes into freshman year, are that the concepts being taught are social- emotional and valuable for students. Putting the Health class into freshman year has its advantages. It's also a singleton, a single- class. Right now, students have to couple Health during sophomore year with the two- year PE requirement. Moving Health to freshman year would mean that students could have a full year of classes as sophomores. FMP is only 20 minutes, 4 days a week, and wouldn't meet requirement for instructional minutes for Health. There are students with extracurricular activities outside school. Could students in good academic standing have the choice of having their GAEL period at 7th period? So they can leave during 7th period for outside activities? One of the goals is to support students academically across many areas of interest. Many students already have jobs or college prep classes that require they leave school early. A 7th period GAEL period could definitely be open to students moving on to off- campus academic interests. It is not a new concept for us to have students off campus. If the library is used as the learning lab or The Hub, where do kids go for a quiet place to study? The description of the learning lab sounds great & successful, but not quiet. At beginning of current school year, we preserved the library as a quiet space. If students wanted to be louder, they went to Career Center. But eventually, we ended up switching that, in The Hub because it s not necessarily quiet. Students with the need for quiet time go into the Career Center. There are generally students in the Career Center. We are also developing spots on campus to be quiet spaces. 1

2 At beginning of current school year, we preserved the library as a quiet space. If students wanted to be louder, they went to Career Center. But eventually, we ended up switching that, in The Hub because it s not necessarily quiet. Students with the need for quiet time go into the Career Center. There are generally students in the Career Center. We are also developing spots on campus to be quiet spaces. Computer centers (located in the library) are also quiet spaces. Freshman will have seven classes. How will homework be adjusted across seven classes? These students will not have a GAEL period. Won't they start school with more stress? We are taking a look at the possibility of adding release or GAEL time within freshman seminar. Our homework and grading policy allows options to monitor the amount of homework that has been given. We have already begun minimizing homework on breaks. This is work in progress to look at the amount of homework and the amount of time students devote to doing homework. Can the GAEL period be used for students to take an elective class? Because with the graduation requirements there is very little time for "fun classes", art, chorus, programming etc. At this time we are looking for students to use the GAEL period to self- direct student work, balance workloads and take the opportunity to plan and time management. We are not using the period as an opportunity to pick up another class, which adds to the budget for the high school at a point where we are still dealing with budget issues with the State of California. Have you considered a block schedule? Students have different learning needs. We have looked at a block and modified block. We have departments that have core content that needs to be covered daily, so we do not think it would be an effective way to approach instruction, with students in class every other day. How does the GAEL period help good students? Most students are doing fine academically. But we want students to have a chance to have a breather during the day, get homework started or finished, work with collaborative groups and get help if they need it. How will you keep students on campus during GAEL period? Students will be in monitored areas. Student won't be able to go to classrooms, or classroom spaces, most of the time. They will be able to go to The Hub, the Career Center or in the Student Union. In each of those areas, campus supervisors, staff and teachers will be available with a monitoring system so we know that know where students are. Would this schedule change occur so quickly if the school were not expecting such tremendous growth? No, growth is not the driver of this proposal. Offering our students the best educational opportunity in order to prepare them for success in college and career is the driving force behind this change effort. We are trying to push students to higher levels. We looked at data of D/F rates. If we are pushing our students to increased rigor, we want to be able to support them. Want to be able to help them get to the next level. If the incoming freshmen have to take the health class, are there going to be enough teachers for the sophomores to take it also? 2

3 We are already opening the Ed Join pool to start vetting teaching candidates to have enough teachers to teach the Health classes. Are there still going to be field shows/marching band and color guard? Yes, there will be no changes made to the marching band and color guard programs. The proposal shortens class instructional time by 5-9%. That's the equivalent of 2-3 weeks over the course of the school year. How can that possibly allow the same material to be covered? Our teachers are committed to tightening their teaching strategies in order to cover the curriculum in the allotted amount of time. The use of the FMP and GAEL period for distribution of school- wide information that previously occurred during class time will actually add instructional minutes back into some classes during the day. How does the GAEL period help a good student with time spent on homework? The GAEL period allows our students to get a head- start on their homework on campus, utilizing the available research materials, teachers, or student tutors. It also allows them time to meet with their counselor, explore options in the Career Center, take time to read, journal or decompress. The design of the GAEL period is modeled after a college tutoring center, thus preparing students for the world of college and career. Tutoring is not mandated for students who are successful, but for students who are doing well, it is available for them. There are many ways that students who are independent learners can use the team; it's not meant to be a punishment. It's a flexible time for time management. How are you going to fit everyone in the Hub during the GAEL period? Multiple locations will be available for student- use during the GAEL period. The Hub, the Student Union, the Career Center for a quiet space, the lab spaces in the Hub, areas outside around campus when the weather is nice, which is a large part of the school year. Will sophomores or juniors who participate in outside sports or school athletic teams be able to choose 7th period for the GAEL period so when leaving early for games/meets they won't miss class? Every effort will be made to place students who have sports schedules inside or outside of school into a GAEL 7th period in order to minimize loss of valuable instructional time. How will ROP classes be impacted by a schedule change? ROP is important to our high school program, and we would be working with our counselors to make sure ROP students would be able to take those classes. ROP works with many different schedules and we believe they will be able to work with any schedule change we might make. Does lengthening the school day increase funding for the school? The funding is not an issue because school funding it is based on the number of students in class every day, 3

4 The funding is not an issue because school funding it is based on the number of students in class every day, not Where on the are length the tutors of the coming school from? day. Will there be advanced tutors? Can parents come in and see what's happening? How are you going to address students' mental health issues? We will have to develop a good training program for tutors. Teachers are coming and really serving the We needs are of concerned students. with Parents the can social, come emotional in to see and programs mental as health a visitor. of our students. There is a lot of stress and it needs to be addressed. We have to address it and we want to address it. We are looking at a wellness center What are to be ratios accessible for tutoring? to students. Why aren't We are teachers hoping the teaching GAEL more? period Shouldn't will be time there to take be a cap breath. on the FMP will build number in those of AP support classes a systems student as can well take? with mentors and access to counselors. The ratio is about 4-5 students to 1 tutor. We have students who come in from a variety of clubs and variety of expertise for tutoring volunteer work, as well as college students and teachers who come in. There are many people tutoring. All with a variety of skill sets needed to serve students. How will the decision be made and how much input will be considered? The School Board will make the decision. They will be taking this up as an item for discussion and potential decision on May 12. The final decision will rest with the School Board. Will the GAEL period be a graded period? It is not a graded period. Is the School Board an open meeting and can parents speak at the meeting? Yes, School Board meetings are open to the public and are held on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month at 5:30 p.m. There is a visitors section for any non- agenda items and individuals can speak on any item that is a topic on the agenda. What is the cost associated with extending the day? Teachers will have staggered start and end times to mitigate salary costs. So there is no added cost for staffing. But there will be costs associated with staffing for health classes and staffing for the freshman seminar. Additional classes cost approximately $20K a section for the year. The total costs would be approximately $500K. The health class is an existing requirement, but is currently a sophomore requirement so it would be a cost to the budget one year early. 4

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