Mead schools may discontinue popular scheduling of classes

A popular way of scheduling classes at some schools in the Mead School District appears to be on the way out.

For the past five years at two high schools and a middle school, students had a schedule that mixed traditional six-period days with three-period days. Twice a week, classes grew to 90 minutes.

Students liked it because twice a week they would receive time in the morning to visit any teacher they wanted for help with schoolwork.

Recently, the Mead Education Association discovered that a variance approved by teachers five years ago for the schedule must be renewed every year. Teachers had to agree with a 75 percent vote to give up 60 minutes of prep time daily.

A renewal has not been done since the schedule began.

When the matter went to a vote recently, teachers failed to support it for next year at Mead High School and Mead Middle School. Mt. Spokane High School will keep the modified block schedule.

As word began leaking out to students last week, some began scrambling to save the old schedule.

Many students like the current schedule because finding teachers after school was nearly impossible, since so many teachers are involved in clubs and sports, said Kiersten Black, a Mead High School freshman and member of the debate team.

“We’re losing time when we can go in and seek help with teachers,” Black said. “We knew we had to do something.”

A meeting among teachers, administrators and students is planned to hash out the issue.

“It’s been a learning experience for the school,” said Principal Bruce Olgard. “This is one of those issues where there is no easy way to go about making the decision on this. We had to address the variance before we could address anything else.”

Mead Education Association President John Iverson said this is not a community decision. A teacher’s contract cannot be compromised unless the union says so, Iverson said. He didn’t rule out another vote on a variance, if members want that.

“I protect the integrity of our contract,” Iverson said.

He’s also open to new ways of providing access time for students.

“What’s important is what’s best for the kids,” Iverson said.

Mead Superintendent Steve Enoch said there’s no dispute that the contract must be respected.

“This is a district that prides itself on a democratic process and a lot of site-based decision-making,” Enoch said. “I have been told there may be some way to do some form of access time.”

What’s not in question is that as the year winds down, there are still many discussions to be had about next year’s schedule.