Busy Summer For Continuous Calendar School Staff

Principal Scott Read and six teachers. That’s the staff of East Valley School District’s new Continuous Calendar School.

Or, as Read jokes, “six flowers and a gourd.”

He was referring to a flower arrangement brought to a recent staff work session-cum-barbecue by teacher Charlene Bieber.

The summer has been a busy one for these seven. Through workdays and campouts, laughter and jokes, they are designing the curriculum for the new school.

No mean task. All grades are grouped into threes; there are two kindergarten- through second-grade classes; two third- through fifth-grade classes; and two sixth- through eighth-grade classes. It’s an all-volunteer effort for both teachers and families.

Before school starts on Sept. 8, the teachers are working to “spiral” the curriculum, so that over a cycle of three years, each grade level will cover an age-appropriate edition of all material, leaving no areas uncovered by the time the students graduate. The teachers are also looking for themes that cut across subject areas.

In science, for instance, one unit for the oldest class is on chemistry, with emphases on scientific process and hands-on work.

For instance, said teacher Kathy Gordon, her sixth- through eighth-grade students will be told that a crime has been committed by someone in the classroom. A note was left at the crime scene. Each student has a pen; any one of them could have written the note. Who dunnit?

“The kids have to take these different pens and dip them in water. The water makes the chemicals in the ink separate and form a rainbow, and each one is different. Then, the kids can make deductions about who committed the crime,” Gordon said.

The middle classes will tackle chemistry and a milder version of scientific process through work with toys. Vinegar-and-baking soda rockets, for instance.

“We then know that (in future years) when they come to us, they’ve had scientific process,” Gordon said.

And the youngest students will tackle so-called kitchen chemistry, emphasizing recipes and reading, and the numbers involved in measuring.

Talking with this group of teachers is like talking to six sisters. They start and finish thoughts and sentences for each other.

“So we’re on the spiral,” said Jill Shillam, a K-2 teacher. “But we’re in the kitchen, with cook books…” “…where you’re math related,” said Gordon, gesturing toward the third- through fifth-grade teachers. “And we’re reading related, with the mysteries.”

Planning the spiral now ensures that each teacher knows in succeeding years what her incoming students have learned and what she must teach before her students leave for the next class.

Their excitement in creating this new team is palpable. They share jokes; they speak of the joy of working with solid parent support. They relish the flexibility that their small size allows.

The school has enrolled about 140 students and has a few openings, primarily in the older class. The East Valley School Board recently voted to allow some students to enroll from outside the district, under the state’s choice law.

Although working with students in three grade levels at once may seem ambitious, these teachers point out that such classes are already done in the district and elsewhere.

Classes will be held at East Farms Elementary and Mountain View Middle School.

The school year will include 180 days in class, the same as in a traditional school year. The calendar includes a week off in October, a regular Christmas break and a week off in February. Spring break will coincide with the normal spring break in April, and there will be a week off in May. Summer break will last about eight weeks.

For now, the year-round school ends at eighth grade. Read and his teachers say they hope the community will like the school well enough to add another grade each year, until it’s K-12.

, DataTimes