Teachers fight block scheduling
STAMFORD — Change is always contentious. When the decisionmaking process around a move breaks down, it can make the transition even harder.
The decision to move Stamford High School and Westhill High School to a block schedule next fall has fallen into such a pitfall, contributing to a buildup of teacher opposition to the plan.
“We are all very concerned, I have never seen teachers at our school organize like this,” wrote Kristin Tennent, a Westhill math and computer science teacher, in an email to the Advocate.
First, the basics. Currently, Stamford High and Westhill students have
five 50minute class blocks and one 88minute block daily. As students take seven courses, they rotate through them with one dropping every day.
According to the proposal, the block schedule would feature four 88minute classes each day. Students would take eight courses, alternating with four one day and then the other four the next.
For at least the past three years, central office has sought to shift to longer classes, in part due to a change in the state graduation requirements that mandate students need 25 credits instead of 20 to finish high school.
In 2016 Danbury and Norwalk, who are both in Stamford’s district reference group — districts grouped together by the state because of similarities — made the change to block schedules in their high schools with little pushback from teachers, according to school administrators and teacher union representatives from those districts.
Stamford, however, has significant teacher opposition to the plan, which administrators say will take effect next school year. The difference in the case of Stamford versus Danbury and Norwalk appears to be the degree of teacher input in the schedule overhaul.
“When we started this process, I put a committee together of teachers, support staff, and counselors and let them do the work. I sent them on site visits and research,” said Danbury High School Principal Dan Donovan, who said that because the process was led by teachers, the block schedule received little pushback from educators.
Mary Yordon, president of the Norwalk Federation of Teachers union, said in her district high school teachers did not protest the move to a block schedule because their voices were incorporated in the plan.
“Our block initiative began in the high school and was a fairly collaborative and intensely planned process . ... Teachers had a fullyear to discuss and think about how it would impact each department and met with blockscheduling mentors,” Yordon said.
Compared to those two cities, Stamford teachers say the block schedule is being mandated topdown.
“Once again, Stamford Public Schools central office is dictating to teachers ‘you will do this’ instead of saying ‘hey, we’re thinking of doing...what are your thoughts?’ And the people doing the dictating do not have high school classroom experience, so they are dictating from a place of ignorance,” wrote Kate Tobin, a Westhill English teacher and the school’s Stamford Education Association union representative, in an email to the Advocate.
Amy Beldotti, who previously served as principal of Toquam Magnet Elementary School, was named associate superintendent for teaching and learning this summer, and in that new capacity is leading the block schedule initiative with Superintendent of Schools Tamu Lucero, who also comes from a background in elementary education.
On the surface, it may appear the administration has gathered teacher input, but district educators say when you dig deeper, the process has continuously ignored their thoughts and concerns.
Westhill chemistry teacher Jennifer Migiano was on the original committee tasked with devising a new schedule three years ago and said the group chose not to recommend a block plan, in part because the block would decrease the amount of time in each class.
The latest proposal includes an eighth, WIN, or “What I Need,” period on top of the current seven courses, which would serve as an office hourstype period and result in a net decrease in the minutes allotted for each other course. Migiano and several other teachers have said less class time will inhibit their ability to convey all of the necessary information.
“I would not have a problem with the block schedule if you didn’t take away my class time,” Migiano said.
Migiano never had a chance to resolve this issue in committee, however, because although the group was supposed to continue meeting through the summer, she was told the committee was dissolved.
The following fall, administrators reposted the committee and said members would be appointed on a firstcome, firstserve basis, with former committee members getting priority, Migiano said.
“I was at my desk when the posting came through and immediately responded but was not accepted onto the committee,” she said. “The only person from the original committee who was accepted was ambivalent.”
Committees with new configurations of members met for an
other two years following the first group until last year, when administrators announced the block schedule would be implemented at the start of this school year.
But last January, administrators announced the schedule change would be delayed another year to allow more time for stakeholder feedback following a petition, signed by nearly 90 percent of Westhill teaching staff, that argued the change would be premature.
“We believe this because ‘an entire year to collaborate with SEA’ was not/has been utilized with any fidelity, leaving teacher voice out of the process; and ‘an entire year...to participate in professional development on teaching the block’ has not even begun, and the year is now half over,” petition read.
As it nears January once again, administrators have revived the plan to move to a block schedule, but teachers say little has changed in terms of teacher input.
On Election Day, teachers had professional development focused on block scheduling, which Tobin said was “disrespectful” to teachers in its apparent lack of useful information, a sentiment repeated by several other teachers.
As the details of the new plan trickled out, teachers learned they may have to teach an additional sixth course in addition to their current load of five classes, with no additional compensation for the extra work.
“At that point faith was just shattered,” Tobin said. “At Westhill, the conversation has been ‘No way, no block.’ We’re not being listened to, so we’re not making this change.”
The plan has now been amended to only mandate teachers in some subjects, such as art, business, and physical education, be responsible for an additional course, but teachers say they have still been sidelined, perhaps nowhere more than at the Nov. 26 Board of Education meeting when more than 20 teachers came out to speak against the plan.
“At the board meeting we spoke for 90 minutes and the board and central office members were on their phones and laptops the
whole time,” Tobin said, reiterating the frustration of several other teachers who spoke at the meeting.
The teachers say they became even angrier the following day when Beldotti sent a letter home to parents announcing the block schedule and saying, “After careful consideration and collaborative conversations with members of the Stamford Education Association, we believe that block scheduling will allow the most flexibility and opportunity to enrich our students’ learning experience.”
Suzanne Rickson, a math teacher at Stamford High and the SEA representative for the school, said this seeming endorsement by the teachers came as a surprise to her and others in the building.
“We’re not in agreement,” she said. “I also have a concern that the decisionmaking seems to be coming from one person downtown.”
Many of the teachers who spoke against the plan, including Westhill science teacher Carley Grant, said they’re not against block scheduling as a concept, but believes the plan will go poorly if administrators do not listen to teachers.
“They’re not listening,” Grant said. “They’re sitting down at a table with us, but then just doing whatever they want. I think we need to sit down and pinpoint issues we need to fix. I’m just worried the district is jumping into something without fully looking into what our issues are.”
For the administrators’ part, Beldotti said she and Lucero have been meeting regularly with the SEA to discuss the block schedule and adapt the plan to teachers concerns.
“I’m concerned that teachers are upset, but we are listening to their concerns and trying to put as many of their concerns into our plan so we can address them through negotiations with the union,” associate superintendent said. “I’m optimistic that we will have a lot of teacher support when everyone understands what we’re talking about with more details.”