It’s hard to imagine the new modified block schedule is a good thing for Lake Orion High School. Administrators are proposing changes they say will go into effect when the first school bells ring next fall; changes that will mean some students, instead of taking four 90-minute ‘block? classes, will take three blocks and two 45-minute ‘skinny? classes. The changes, administrators say, will allow the district to slice a dozen or more teachers from its payroll, thereby saving an estimated $800,000 annually.
Teachers left standing when the dust settles will shoulder a heavier workload than they’re already carrying. Not only will each be required to take on more students, but the staffing cuts will also slash each teacher’s daily prep time right down the middle’from 90 to 45 minutes. More kids, less time to prep. This is a good idea?
So, what? Teachers come to class with ungraded papers and half-prepared lessons? Doubtful.
More likely, teachers will still come fully prepared, carving big chunks of unpaid time away from families, friends and outside interests.
Before long, they’ll be burned out, exhausted and left feeling unappreciated.
This is a bad, bad thing; these are the people, after all, who often spend more time with our children than we do every day. Pretend they’re not important, and we might as well say ‘our children aren’t important.?
Our kids deserve better, and quite frankly our teachers deserve better.
The administration needs first to look at itself to make the cuts that undoubtedly need to be made.
In 2006-2007, the district had 11 district administrators, two district administrative support staff, 17.5 school administrators and 52.9 administrative support staff, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
No one wants to see any more jobs lost. But lets figure out where our priorities are. We send our children to school for an education; don’t make it harder for them to learn by making it harder for teachers to teach.