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Teachers, students and parents pressure board to revisit trimester schedule; trustees ask for new surveys and options
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Summary
Multiple teachers, students and the PTSA president told the board that the district's trimester schedule is causing rushed pacing, reduced course access for AP/IB students, and overreliance on Apex remediation; trustees asked staff to run broader parent and student surveys and to present alternative scheduling options in April.
Dozens of community members — including teachers, students and PTSA leaders — urged the Fallbrook Union High School District Board of Trustees on March 13 to reconsider the district's trimester schedule and to improve transparency around data collection.
Daniel Nielsen, an English and ELD teacher and last year’s district teacher of the year, said the district needs broader, better‑publicized surveys and more transparent data. "Without broad input from those most affected, we are making decisions in the dark," he said, urging deeper analysis of how the schedule affects learning, engagement and access to courses.
Multiple speakers echoed instructional concerns. Scott Smith, who teaches AP/IB courses, said his AP language data indicates students who keep the same teacher all year "score the highest on the AP test," and warned that frequent teacher turnover between trimesters hampers continuity. Student speakers described rapid pacing and limited time to master material: Addie Shea said trimester coursework can force students to learn a week’s worth of topics in days and that Apex remediation felt like "I retained absolutely nothing." Alyssa Brooks, a senior with an IEP, said long gaps between paired A/B courses create review cycles that reduce depth of learning and weaken teacher‑student relationships.
PTSA President Erica Stein raised concerns about survey distribution and transparency, saying a parent survey tied to the trimester system was not clearly labeled and may not have reached all families. She offered to share screenshots with the district and asked for clearer communications.
In response to public comment, trustees asked administration for follow‑up. Trustee members requested raw teacher survey data and asked that the district create separate, widely publicized Google Form surveys for students and parents (not run during Warrior Pride Time), and to provide site‑level grade and benchmark breakdowns that exclude online Apex remediation. Superintendent Ilsa Garza Gonzales told trustees she would bring alternative scheduling options to the April meeting and noted prior district analysis; she also said "semester no longer works for students" in the broader county context but agreed to present other models used regionally for board review.
What happens next: Administration agreed to prepare new parent and student surveys, deliver site‑level analyses by the May meeting, and present a menu of alternative schedules for board consideration in April. There was no board vote to change the schedule at the March 13 meeting.
Sources: public comment (Dan Nielsen, Scott Smith, Addie Shea, Alyssa Brooks, Erica Stein), board Q&A and organizational items at the March 13 meeting.
