Proposed Policy Change Cheats our Kids!

Tomorrow (Monday) night at the Alamosa School Board meeting the BOE will begin the steps to change the definition of "Actively Engaged in the Educational Process" to include the time between classes for both OMS/AHS.  

The BOE is proposing a revision to district policy that will strike excluding passing time (time between classes when students move from one class to another) to allow this passing time to be counted in the number of hours students are "actively engaged in the educational process".  You can see the proposed revision here. 

In that same policy it states... "The Board defines "actively engaged in the educational process" as time when students are working toward achieving educational objectives under the supervision of a licensed teacher."   While we understand that teachers are involved in passing time from a behavioral standpoint, we do not believe that students are working towards achieving educational objectives during these passing periods.  

A-PAGE believes that passing periods should not be counted as "actively engaged in the educational process".   The BOE is making this change because currently both OMS and AHS are not meeting the minimum number of hours required by state law without including passing time.  Passing time accounts for approximately 30 minutes each day.  This 30 minutes adds up to about 84 hours of instruction each year that our students are not getting as required by state law.  We have provided alternative options to the school district that increases the day at the middle school and high school by 30 minutes (start 15 minutes earlier and end 15 minutes later) to allow the school district to meet the minimum hours, without overburdening teachers with a longer work week (this is achieved with slightly different PLC time for the middle and high school teachers each week).

We need parents to rally in opposition to this proposed policy revision!! 

Our students are already behind their peers in Colorado.  Let's work at increasing educational time for students instead of decreasing it by counting non-education time as actively involved in education.

The school board meeting begins at 7pm at the District Office (209 Victoria Avenue – south end of  OMS parking lot). If you wish to speak regarding this policy revision, you must arrive 5 minutes early and sign up with the secretary. You will get 3 minutes to address the board. This section of the meeting occurs shortly after the start of the meeting.

Policy changes require three readings by the BOE.  This Monday is the first reading of this proposed policy change.  If you are unable to attend this Monday's meeting to speak, please consider attending one of the upcoming readings or contact any school board member via phone.  School Board members names & contact information can be found here.

There are 3 opportunities for you to speak regarding this policy:

1. Monday at 7pm
2. The second reading, when any discussion is to occur by the school board (will likely be on June 3rd). 
3. The final reading is when the revision will be approved (date is unknown - probably at the next scheduled board meeting)

We encourage you to attend and speak up!
Sincerely,
A-PAGE Committee 

Adams State Aligns Spring Break with Valley Schools

An issue that A-PAGE has been working on for the last two years has finally come to a resolution. 

Adams State has decided to adjust the calendars for the next two academic years to align Adams State spring break with a majority of the Valley school districts (including the Alamosa School District).

2013-14: Spring Break will be Monday – Friday, March 24 – 28, 2014
2014-15: Spring Break will be Monday – Friday, March 23 – 27, 2015

This will allow those students, parents and families of Alamosa School District students who are employed by or concurrently enrolled at Adams State to have the same spring break schedule.  For the last 3 years the spring breaks of Adams State and the Alamosa School District have not been held during the same week, causing problems for many students (ASD as well as ASU) and their families.

Earlier this year most of the school districts in the valley came together to align on the same spring break for the 2013-14 school year.  This step by ASU has now completed that alignment. 

Note: TSJC rotates alignment of their spring break with Trinidad School District one year and with Alamosa School District the next year.  So this change will also add TSJC to the alignment every other year.

Early Release will be on Wednesday next year

At the School Board meeting on Monday, April 8th, the BOE approved calendar option A with a early release day of Wednesday.  There was one modification to the calendar, which was that OMS & AHS will release at 1:40 instead of 1:25 for 15 additional minutes of instruction. (AES will release at 1:15pm)

A-PAGE via the District Accountability Committee questioned how the state required minimum number of 1056 hours for Secondary (OMS & AHS) were being met given that the current district policy (IC/ICA) specifically excludes passing time (time between classes) from being included in the definition of "actively engaged in the educational process".  While the state does allow passing time to be included in this definition, current district policy does not.

For the 2012-13 school year, the amount of time that students are "actively engaged in the educational process" at OMS is 990 hours, 8 minutes and at AHS is 990 hours, 27 minutes.  Both of which are well below the 1056 hours required by state law (by about 11 regular school days).  The approved calendar for next year calls for 976 hours at OMS and 994 hours at AHS (with the proposed block schedule).  Again, those are still both significantly less than the 1056 required by the state.

It appeared that the district was ready to push though a change to the IC/ICA policy with a revised agenda for the BOE meeting last night.  However, at the last minute, they tabled the action item regarding that policy.  So our question still remains, how is the district meeting the minimum required 1056 hours of instruction at the middle school and high school level?

Proposed 2013-14 Alamosa School Calendar

 As a result of parent feedback at the School Board meeting on February 19th, the proposed calendar was sent back to the Calendar Committee for revisions.  The main areas of concern were:

1. The day of the week for early release (Wednesday was proposed) 
2. The number of hours of early release (release at 12:45pm nearly doubling the early release time from 41 hours to over 78 hours of loss of instruction) 
3. Misalignment of breaks with Adams State. 

Numerous parents met on Feb 24th with the parent reps to the Calendar Committee and provided suggestions/input to the calendar revision which they took forward to the calendar committee meeting.

Three proposed calendars (click to see them) are now being circulated to teachers for their consideration and vote.  The calendars are identical to the original calendar (and identical to each other) with the following exceptions:

• Option A - Every Wednesday early release at 1:15(Elem)/1:25(Secondary) (35 days @ 1-3/4 hrs = 61.25 hrs loss of instruction at Elem, 70 hrs for Secondary)
• Option B - Every Monday early release at 1:15(Elem)/1:25(Secondary) (32 days @ 1-3/4 hrs = 56 hrs Elem, 64 hrs Secondary)
• Option C - Every Friday early release at 12:45(Elem)/12:55(Secondary) (29 days @ 2-1/4 hrs = 65.25hrs Elem, 72.5 hrs Secondary) 

The School Board will approve one of these calendars at their next meeting on April 8th.   

Don't forget to CAST YOUR VOTE on the 3 calendar options in the poll to the left. (Poll is now closed)

Poll results will be provided to the school board at their April 8th meeting.  If you wish to speak to the school board regarding the calendar, you can attend the meeting at the District Office (209 Victoria Ave).  The meeting begins at 7pm.  Arrive 5 minutes before the meeting to sign up to speak with the secretary.  You will have 3 minutes to speak.

Parent Calendar Input - you're invited!

You are invited to provide your input on the proposed Alamosa School Calendar for next school year. 

Sunday, Feb 24th at 7pm
Bistro Rialto in the Big Room.

Parent representatives to the calendar committee will be there to hear your input and will take your input to the calendar committee.

We encourage you to attend!

BOE Meeting - Calendar Status

The School Board met on Tuesday night and 9 different parents spoke regarding the proposed 2013-14 school calendar.  The key points shared by many of the parents were:

• Doubling of PLC time is excessive - 78 total hours is over two full weeks of school time that students lose.
• Wednesday is a poor choice for early release - interrupts the weekly learning flow.  Most parents (and many teachers) prefer Friday, based on last year's calendar survey.
• Lack of alignment of school breaks (Fall, Winter, Spring) with Adams State and TSJC.

There was also discussion on the process of the calendar development and how parent representatives to the calendar committee are not selected by the parents, but by the administration.

The end result was that the 2013-14 School Calendar was tabled and the calendar committee has been asked to revisit the calendar and to come back as a committee to the next school board meeting (March 4) to present a revised calendar.

Unfortunately, none of the parent representatives to the calendar committee were at the school board meeting to hear the parent input.  The parent representatives are: Donna Wehe, Jolene Lopez, Sophia Avila and Faustin Martinez.  A-PAGE is currently working to set up a meeting with the parent representatives so we can share our input directly.  We will post details of when that meeting will happen as soon as possible.  It will likely happen this weekend.  (Update - meeting is Sunday, Feb 24th at 7pm at Bistro Rialto)

If you were unable to speak at the School Board meeting, but have concerns or comments you’d like presented to the calendar committee parent representatives, you have several options:
1) Contact any of the committee members you know to provide your input directly
2) Attend this weekend's meeting
3) Leave a comment below or send us an email to alamosapage@gmail.com with your comments and we will include them in the discussion with the parent representatives.

We cannot let our hard work and effort stop here – let’s rally and get our input heard by those on the committee who are designated to represent us!

2013-14 School Calendar

The school district provided the proposed 2013-14 School Calendar to the District Accountability Committee on Monday night.  The calendar is now out for teacher review/comments and will then go before the school board for approval on Tuesday, Feb. 19th at 7pm.  If you have comments on the proposed calendar, we encourage you to attend the school board meeting on Feb. 19th.  Click the highlighted link to see the proposed calendar.  

Last year A-PAGE did a district wide parent survey to gather parent input on a variety of school calendar options.  The results of that survey can be found here.  The survey showed that most parents preferred early release activities to be scheduled on Friday's.  Also, most parents desired alignment of spring break with both Adams State and with other school districts in the valley.  Last year this input made no significant impact on the 2012-13 school calendar.  This year's proposed calendar is much the same.  The only items incorporated from the parent survey were:

• Consistent schedule for early release days (same day every week, but not the day preferred by most parents)
• Alignment of spring break with other valley districts (but not Adams State)

Additional items to note regarding the proposed calendar:

• Early Release day has been moved to Wednesdays.
• Early Release time has been moved back an additional hour to a 12:45 release time for Elementary, 12:55 release time for Secondary, almost doubling the early release time.
• School is out the entire week of Thanksgiving.
• School starts in the fall on a Friday.

Since parent input from the parent calendar survey does not appear to be considered, we highly recommend that you attend the Feb. 19th School Board meeting to provide your input.  The school board meeting begins at 7pm at the District Office (209 Victoria Avenue – next OMS). You must arrive 5 minutes early and sign up with the secretary to speak during the meeting. You will get 3 minutes to address the board. This section of the meeting occurs shortly after the start of the meeting. 

If you are unable to attend the school board meeting, consider contacting any/all school board members by phone prior to the meeting.  You can find the school board member names and phone numbers here: School Board Reps

If you have any questions about the process, we are more than happy to answer any questions by emailing us at alamosapage@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

The Alamosa Parent Advocacy Group for Education (A-PAGE) committee.