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Committee approves summer curriculum-writing projects, outlines hours model
Summary
The curriculum committee approved summer curriculum project requests and discussed the district’s model for allocating hours to course revisions and new-course development.
The Waunakee Community School District curriculum committee approved a slate of summer curriculum-writing projects and heard staff explain how the district assigns hours and staff to those projects.
Staff said they worked with student-services and other program leads to classify some summer projects as social-emotional learning or English Learner work and to identify available carryover funds. Committee members asked how the district determines appropriate hours for revisions versus new courses; staff described a model that considers whether a project is a new course, whether it is a semester or full-year course and a multiplier for additional staff members on a team.
Amy (staff member) said the district has a three-variable model: new course vs. revision, semester vs. full year, and a multiplier that increases hours when additional staff are added (staff described the multiplier as an additional roughly 20–25 percent for each extra staff member, applied to a base allocation). Staff also noted that teams sometimes request fewer hours than the model awards because of individual scheduling constraints; the district will not force teams to increase requests but will check with leads if something appears incorrectly low.
The committee discussed specific hour examples: full-course revisions commonly request 40 hours per person while some unit revisions requested up to 70 hours, and staff said higher totals are possible where justified. Staff said the district opens the Google form for requests in the fall, asks teams to submit by January, and begins triage in early February.
Board member Joan Ensign raised concern that some similar projects received different hour allocations; staff responded they use the three-variable model and check with teams when schedules constrain hours. Staff also said next year’s application form will ask proposers to explain how their proposal aligns with school improvement plans and district academic goals to strengthen alignment.
The motion to approve the summer curriculum requests carried by voice vote.
