Charlestown, MA 12-13-06

1. Can we get copies of the master schedules?

• See attached
• “Keep it simple”
• 4 80-minute classes
• They kept their existing school day in place…”don’t change what is working” and just added on 3 additional hours
• Pledge: “Not to un-do anything that is working”
• First hour is “Math League” everyday
• Next two hours are “Electives” which alternate every day; students choose two new electives at mid-year
• 6th grade is different. – All run by Citizen’s Schools from 1:30-4:30
• Guiding principles: Maintain and build on existing strengths of the school, address areas of weakness

2. How did the schedule change? Lunches/snack?

• Snack during 2 hour elective block…good to break up this long period
• Snack comes out of budget

3. Are start and end times the same for all (students and teachers)?

• School day for all students 7:00-4:30
• Fridays are early release 11:20 for students; 12:00 for staff
• Staff chooses end time
• Staff can work regular day 7:00-1:30, the regular day plus “Math League”, or the regular day plus “Math League” and Electives

4. How are extra minutes spent? Enrichment?

“Math League” 1:30-2:30

• For grades 7 and 8 (6th grade is entirely run by Citizen Schools)
• Students are placed on a team and practice math skills Monday-Wednesday
• 30 teams…not all “coaches” are math teachers…got people talking about how math was taught across disciplines
• Every student has a buddy
• Thursdays are the “Game Days” and teams compete against each other
• Very much a part of their school culture…the kids are really into it!
• All coordinated by the Math Chair for the school…unbelievable amount of organization…we were all very impressed
• Math chair makes packets for “coaches” every week
• All based around sports
• Week’s winners are posted on elaborate display board in hallway
• They are on the DOE’s “Restructuring” list for math, and now they have added 4 hours of math a week for every student

Enrichment 2:30-4:30

• Choose two, and meet every other day
• Choose two new electives at the mid-year
• Examples: step, drama, cooking, tennis, swimming (see handout)
• Transportation provided to alternative locations (high school for pool, Y for courts, etc.)
• Important to have choice built in for students
• Two hours is a long class, but Mr. Sabin did not want a transition at the end of the day…transitions hard for their students…trouble

5. How attentive are the students during the last hour?

• Advice: enrichment needs to be at the end of the day
• Kids are tired, but last two hours is a fun activity that they chose to take part in

6. Are all the staff involved in extended day?

• NO – no one being forced to do extended day
• Buy-in not a problem with this model
• But, they experienced difficulty finding qualified staff to take over from 2:30-4:30 (most staff elected to stay for Math League)
• Advice: Mandate a small increase in time and then bring in coverage for the last hour or so
• Need to get cynics on board from the start
• There is a feeling that exists within the school that there are 2 parts of the day…7-1:30 day and then the 1:30-4:30 with a very different staff…both a good and a bad thing

7. Are students kept after school? Or, are there other discipline policies in place?

• Friday is detention day, but there could be up to 60 kids
• “Definitely a problem” for us
• Thinking about doing a lunch table

8. How is extended day impacting students with disabilities?

• Math Team is helpful to reinforce skills
• For some students, only choose one elective and the other elective is student support
• same with ELL students…one elective chosen and the other is ELL
• This means that Special Ed and ELL students are getting 4 hours of extra help a week
• Has been harder for IM students…long day

9. Did you add staff? Who? How were they funded?

• Needed to add tons of staff to cover 2:30-4:30 shift
• Finding the staff was very difficult
• Paras, subs, teachers, community members, YMCA, interns
• EF sends tutors to school
• But, no training for elective staff…some being “eaten alive” and others doing a great job

10. Which groups were involved in the planning of the extended day activities?

• Team just like we have

11. What has attendance looked like for teachers/students?

• Good teacher attendance…don’t want to put burden on their colleagues if they are not there to run a math group or an elective
• Some staff even come back to school from off-site PD to run their electives
• Student attendance is the same (poor!)

12. What are the benefits of extended day?

• So much work, but “fantastic” for the kids
• For some teachers it may not be the best, but it is right for the kids
• Getting kids off streets…major gang issues in past

13. What are the drawbacks of extended day?

• Students tired at end of the day
• Exhausting for teachers and administrators
• Increase in discipline issues at end of the day (partly due to inexperienced staff)

14. Will you apply for the grant next year?

• Yes

15. What are your expected results?

• In terms of MCAS, hoping to see math scores improve with 4 additional hours of math per week

16. How are you meeting these results?

• Do not have any assessment pieces in place at this time

17. How did class time for specials/exploratories change?

• Did not really discuss

18. Does everyone have the same amount of preparation time?

• Varying amounts of prep time…did not get into detail

19. Is common planning time worked into the schedule?

• Did not go into detail

20. Is there time during the school day for homework assistance?

• Math homework always completed during “Math League”
• All other homework done at home
• Teachers reporting that math HW always done, but low completion on other area

21. Do you give homework outside of school?

• See #20

22. Did you have to negotiate with any labor unions?

• All done through unions/BPS

23. How are release days handled?

• Every Friday
• Only time they can hold staff meetings since everyone is still there…every other day, teachers leave at different times

24. What kinds of professional development activities have you been doing? How is it scheduled in? Do they use outside resources or internal resources?

• Wish that they could schedule PD for elective teachers, but not a lot of time
• Administrators have been trying to observe and model lessons for some of the staff who are struggling

25. Any advice? What would you do differently?

• Never realized how much work for an administrator
• 1:30-4:30 busiest part of the day
• Tired, not responding to staff as quickly
• Discipline is an issue in the afternoon…not as qualified staff from 1:30-4:30
• Can’t start daily admin tasks until 5:00
• Advice is to stagger administrators
• “We were naïve about this…we thought of it more as an extension of our after school program not of our school day, but we were wrong”
• (I’ve also added in some of his advice under the appropriate questions)

26. How did you choose your partner programs, and what have been the benefits and the disadvantages in working with them?

• Citizens Schools for the 6th grade (this was in place before the grant, I think)
• Bringing in lots of people from the community
• But, some people are under-qualified to teach a 2-hour class at the end of a long day with middle school students!

27. Student Feedback

• We had the chance to talk to a lot of students, and all but one said that they liked extended day better
• “It’s more fun”
• Many mentioned that they enjoyed “Math League”
• Many are really interested in their electives
• We even got a performance for the step group…they were great!!!

Compiled by Jenna Wasson

When looking for ideas a brainstorm is a good start.  So if you have a thought about what the schedule should be or what should/could be on it list it here.

1.) Can we get copies of the schedules (master – grade level)?

• Joanne Lambert will fax them to us.

2.) How did the schedule change? Lunches/snacks?

• Kept 30 minute lunch periods. Have two working snacks – one snack the school provides, the other the students bring. School had to buy rubber bins to store the snacks in each room.
• Food service got a separate grant for the snack – it’s usually one baked good and applesauce.

3.) Are starting and ending times the same for all (students and teachers)?

• Starting and ending times are the same for all faculty/staff.
• Band/music and outside counselors kept their original schedules and are not part of the extended day.
• Paras were given the option of coming in 15 minutes early in the morning to staff the cafeteria during breakfast, but they can leave 15 minutes early at the end of the day.

4.) How are the extra minutes spent? In addition to extra classroom time – what other programs were created, advisory, clubs, enrichment – how were these handled?

• Class time was extended to 75 and 120 minute blocks. Salemwood got the Baystate reading grant and had to implement this into the school day and required 120 minute literacy blocks.

There are a variety of new programs:

• Connections — 1 x 60 per month. Partner older students with younger students to do creative art projects.

• Academic Creative Enrichment (ACE) – 2 x 90 per month. Teachers create academic enrichment programs, parents could volunteer to run a group themselves, 15:1 student teacher ratio. These are half year courses.
• 21st Century – 2 x 60 per week. Time for Peacebuilders 5-8, and Second Step K-4. Students read “Time for Kids,” or do MCAS test prep.
• Partnership for Community Schools (PCSM) – once a month from 12:30 – 3:15, PCSM brings in 27 members and the takeover of the students to give teachers common planning time.
• Advisor/Advisee – 2 x 60 per month. Done in grades 5 – 8, separated boys from girls (students voted) they do a lot of activities from the Peacebuilder binder. Assistant principal makes a suggested lesson plan. Teachers do not do these activities with their own students.
• These programs all occur on Wednesdays and it’s called, “Wacky Wednesday’s.”

5.) How attentive are the students during the last hour? Do you recommend activities or academics at the end of the day?

• They have the directed study period at the end of the day and this is the toughest time for the students and faculty.
• They’re going to change the schedule next year to stagger the directed study period.
• The students like the ACE program so activities like this may be better suited for the end of the day. 

6.) Are all the staff involved in extended day? How did specialists (SPED/ELL/SPEECH) fit into the extended learning time?

• Custodians, secretaries, lunch people, band, music, outside counselors kept their regular schedules

7.) Are students kept after school? Or, are there other discipline policies in place?

• There has been an increase in behavior problems. Students can be kept after school until 4:00 by an assistant principal. They also created the “Delta Room” which is an in-house suspension room.
• The Salemwood used some of the grant funds to hire four school wide paras. The paras cover classes for classroom teachers to have common planning time and they also rotate in and out of the Delta Room. Teachers also staff the delta room as a duty period, but it’s mostly handled by the paras. This is not a place for teachers to send the students if they are misbehaving during class time. If a student is misbehaving in class, they go to an assistant principal. Many teachers have chairs outside the classroom doors and there were students in the hall.

8.) How is the extended day impacting students with disabilities? Are more services able to be provided?

• With 90 minute blocks, teachers can pull students to reinforce concepts – it was much harder to pull students from 45 minute block.

9.) Did you add staff? Who? How were they funded?

• Four school wide paras and a part time guidance counselor were hired.
• There is a grant-funded position for an ELT coordinator.
• One teacher recommended that the money be used to fund teachers not consultants. 

10.) Which groups were involved in the planning of the extended day activities?

• N/A

11.) What has attendance looked like for teachers/students?

• They don’t have hard data yet. Great student attendance for “Wacky Wednesdays.”

12.) What are the benefits of extended day?

• Enrichment for students. 
• Focus on MCAS questions.
• Students say the best thing is enrichment … weight training, yoga, coffeehouse, dance, etc.
• Students also like directed study so they can get their homework completed. 

13.) What are the drawbacks of extended day? Will you apply for the grant next year?

• Teachers/administrators are tired at the end of the day, “Extended day is definitely longer.”
  • Students say:
    • “Not enough time to do after-school activities.”
    • “It’s getting dark when we go home.”
    • “It’s hard to pay attention during such long classes.”
    • “Teachers don’t perform their best because they feel too tired.” 

14.) Will you apply for the grant next year?

• Yes, although there are many kinks to work out, the administrators said that they believe in extended day. 
• One teacher said that she wants to give it another year to work out the bugs.
• Another teacher said that it wasn’t worth the money and she would go back to a regular day schedule if she could.

15.)  What are your expected results? How are you measuring these results?

• Have not developed an assessment tool yet.

16.) How did the class time for specials/exploratories change?

• Spanish was changed to an exploratory.  They have two Spanish teachers and they offer Spanish school-wide.
• One student complained that other languages weren’t offered. 

17.) Does everyone have the same amount of preparation time? Is common planning time worked into the schedule?

• Yes, all within five minutes of each other.  The 7th and 8th grades did not lose any prep/meeting time.

18.)  Is common planning time worked into the schedule?  Is there any time made available for vertical teaming?

• Yes, the four school-wide paras were hired to cover classes to provide teachers with common planning time and the PCSM gives school-wide time for common planning time.

19.)  Is there time during the school day for homework assistance?

• Yes, directed study time.  Some of the 8th grade students we spoke with complained that teachers give too much homework.  Students didn’t feel that they should have homework and an extended day.

20.) Do you give homework to be done outside of school?

• Yes

21.) Did you have to negotiate with any labor unions?

• Yes, these negotiations need to be completed by April as part of the grant application.

22.) How are release days handled?

• On Early Release Wednesdays, students leave the same time as other
  Malden schools, but teachers are obligated to stay until their contracted time. 
• Although PD is supposed to happen at the Salemwood, it’s not always possible - so teachers attend meetings at other schools and then return to the Salemwood after the district PD is completed.  This time is used for faculty meetings.

23.) What kinds of professional development activities have you been doing?  How is it scheduled?  Do they use outside resources or internal resources?

• Teachers 21 and Baystate Reading are the two largest forms of PD, and it’s all done in house.  Department meetings are scheduled in other locations.

24.) Any additional advice?  What would you do differently?

• Keep the schedule simple.  Have the school on one “bell” schedule and allow different grades the flexibility to work within that schedule.
• Do not start any new initiatives at the same time.
• “Took on too much … slow it down.”

25.)  How did you choose your partner programs, and what have been the benefits and disadvantages of working with them?

• PCSM – biggest issue is controlling the students
• Teachers 21 for professional development 

26.)  Other comments:

• The Salemwood looked at staggering the day and allowing the staff to choose whether or not to work extended day, but they felt that all of the faculty/staff should be in this together. 
• They also looked at extending the year, but did not want to separate themselves out as a school that was not on the same yearly schedule as the rest of the K-8 schools.
• They said that the schedule was “too piecemeal” and they were trying to do too many different things with the extra time.  Again – keep it simple. 

Compiled by:  Paul Teixeira 
Visitation Team: Robin Desantis, Bonnie Paige, Toni-Marie Perna, Paul Teixeira, Jenna Wasson  

The extended day committee came up with a list of general questions to ask administrators, teachers and students who are currently working on an extended day schedule.

1.  Can we get copies of the schedules (master – grade level)?

2.  How did the schedule change?  Lunches/snacks?

3.  Are starting and ending times the same for all (students and teachers)?

4.  How are the extra minutes spent? In addition to extra classroom time – what other programs were created, advisory, clubs, enrichment – how were these handled?

5.  How attentive are the students during the last hour?  Do you recommend activities or academics at the end of the day?

6.  Are all the staff involved in extended day? How did specialists (SPED/ELL) fir into the extended learning time? 

7.  Are students kept after school? Or, are there other discipline policies in place?

8.  How is the extended day impacting students with disabilities? Are more services able to be provided? 

9.  Did you add staff?  Who?  How were they funded?

10.  Which groups were involved in the planning of the extended day activities?

11.  What has attendance looked like for teachers/students?

12.  What are the benefits of extended day?

13.  What are the drawbacks of extended day?

14.  Will you apply for the grant next year? 

15.  What are your expected results?

16.  How are you measuring these results?

17.  How did the class time for specials/exploratories change? 

18.  Does everyone have the same amount of preparation time?

19.  Is common planning time worked into the schedule?  Is time available for verticle teaming?

20.  Is there time during the school day for homework assistance?

21.  Do you give homework to be done outside of school? 

22.  Did you have to negotiate with any labor unions?

23.  How are release days handled?

24.  What kinds of professional development?  How is this scheduled?  Do you use outside resources or internal resources.

25.  Any additional advice?  What would you do differently?

26.  How did you choose your partner programs, and what have been the advantages/disadvantages of working with.

The Survey Committee is responsible for collecting feedback, using surveys, from parents, teachers, community groups, students, etc. on what they would like to see happen if the Ferryway school adds time to the school day.

The Scheduling Committee is responsible for collecting ideas about how to best change the school day schedule to make use of the extra time that the Expanded Learning Time grant will provide.

The Implementation Plan Committee is responsible for creating an action plan to carryout the Expanded Learning Time (ELT) grant.

The visitation committee will coordinate site visits to schools that currently have an Expanded Learning Time (ELT) grant.

The Ferryway school blog site will be used to communicate our ideas for submitting an Expanded Learning Time (ELT) grant.  A blog is a public webspace.   While official posts to the blog will be made by members of various ELT committees, anyone can submit comments to our posts.   Happy blogging!!!

All Ferryway staff members are encouraged to speak with committee members or to drop in on committee meetings in order to voice any ideas or concerns.

The members will be divided among 5 committees:
1. Visitation
2. Scheduling
3. Surveys
4. Communication
5. Implementation Plan

1. Visitation

• Members will arrange visits at schools currently implementing extended-day models in Charlestown, East Boston, Fall River, Cambridge, Worcester, and at Salemwood
• A common list of questions will be generated for members to ask at each of the schools (scheduling, times, enrichment options, staffing, glitches, etc.)

2. Scheduling

• Proposed school day would run 7:45-3:30 school wide
• Need to think about lunch times, snack times, recess times
• Need to start brainstorming how best to use the extra time
  • Art/Music for 5-8
  • Extended math/ELA blocks
  • Project based learning
  • Study skills program
  • Current events
  • Advisor/advisee program
  • Cross-grade activities
  • Math Leagues
  • Homework time

3. Surveys

• A team will generate a survey that will be distributed to all Ferryway families
• A survey will be distributed to staff as well

4. Communication

• Meeting notes will be emailed to staff
• Staff encouraged to drop in on meetings
• Bob S. will look into starting a blog

5. Implementation Plan

• First part due 1-19-06
• Final report due by the end of April

Next Meeting: Scheduling team will meet with Tom on Wednesday at 2:30 in the conference room.