Teachers and media specialists urge board to reject proposed 8-period elementary special schedule, endorse 7-period pilot

Several CUSD elementary specials teachers, media specialists and school staff used the public-comment portion of the April 9 meeting to press the governing board to reject a proposed eight-section daily specials schedule and instead continue with or refine the seven-section pilot the district tested at some schools.

What commenters said: Speakers described multiple operational problems they say would arise under an 8-section model. Major concerns raised by several commenters included: - Transition time and instructional continuity: Teachers said a five-minute buffer between special classes (included in the seven-section pilot) is instructional time for greeting, calm dismissal, and transition; removing the buffer would force back-to-back classes with little time to set up centers or instruments and would reduce actual instructional time. - Loss of prep and planning: Presenters said the 8-section scheme compresses teacher planning and impedes collaborative grade-level planning. Some claimed the 7-section schedule on paper appears equitable but the real-world effects differ by site size and grade configuration. - Safety and space conflicts: Physical-education staff warned that scheduling specials during lunch/recess would create space conflicts (PE classes would lose dedicated outdoor space) and complicate supervision and indoor-recess arrangements on high-heat days. - Library, technology and production tasks: Media specialists and librarians described numerous non-classroom duties (book circulation, inventory and cataloging, managing Accelerated Reader, shelving and procurement) that require blocks of uninterrupted time; they said shorter specials or loss of transition time would degrade library services and project-based learning preparation. - Equity across campuses: Multiple speakers said an 8-section schedule would disproportionately strain large or consolidated campuses and that site size, staffing patterns and duty assignments make a single schedule impractical districtwide.

Representative voices: Cameron Estrella, general-music teacher at Riggs Elementary, urged adoption of the seven-section plan rather than the eight-section plan and warned that instruments and classroom centers would sit unused under a tight schedule. Monique Bovey Landy, general-music teacher at Fulton Elementary, described the seven-section model'which included transition time and collaborative planning'as rooted in best practice and said schools rely on special-area staff to run schoolwide events and assemblies. Laurel Miller, an experienced librarian, and a media specialist (represented by Katie Nash in a letter) described the heavy workload and said 8 sections would reduce instruction to 25 minutes and leave no time for necessary library operations.

Board response and next steps: Board President Serrano clarified the schedule matter will be presented in a public planning session on Friday, April 11; the April 9 meeting included only public comment and no board action. District staff acknowledged scheduling tradeoffs and said the seven-section pilot had been used at some sites (Riggs was named as a pilot site). Staff asked stakeholders to provide site-level feedback and participate in upcoming planning sessions.

Ending: Speakers urged the board to incorporate teacher and specialist feedback into any final scheduling decision; speakers said they support student learning and asked for a plan that protects transition time, collaborative planning and the wide range of special-area duties that support school culture and extracurricular events.