Holliston teachers warn curriculum isn’t ready for new high-school schedule; ask committee to fund summer work

Alex, an English teacher and vice president of the Holliston Federation of Teachers, told the school committee during public comment that teachers lack the summer hours and district support needed to rework every course for the district’s newly adopted schedule.

“The curriculum is not close to ready for the schedule change 3 months from now, and it’s the students who will suffer as a result,” Alex said, asking the committee to reconsider how summer hours are allocated. He said teachers were told during negotiations that summer hours would be made available and that the schedule change’s one-year delay was intended to spread work over two summers. Instead, he said, “when teachers followed up with Principal List…we were told there was no money available.”

The complaint centers on the district’s decision to move from a shorter-term block schedule to a full-year schedule for many courses. Alex described the scale of the work—reformatting units, lessons and assessments across nearly every department—and said that without paid summer time many teachers will be expected to complete hundreds of hours of unpaid labor to meet fall curricula needs.

Committee members acknowledged the concern and noted an upcoming meeting between a group of teachers and the superintendent; Alex said he and other teachers are scheduled to meet with the superintendent the following Monday and urged the committee to support any staffing or budget changes necessary to provide summer hours for curriculum development.

The committee did not vote on a motion related to Alex’s request during the meeting. Members said they will discuss allocation of remaining FY26/early FY27 funds during budget closeout and follow up in July when new personnel are seated.