MCCSC statement on origin of plan to align high school schedules
This is the full text of an email sent to The Herald-Times by Alexis Harmon, director of educational technology & communications for Monroe County Community Schools Corp. at 6:14 p.m. Jan. 8, 2024:
Hello, Mr. Ladwig.
Below is statement in response to your request. I’m ccing Herald Times editor and new education reporter in the spirit of full transparency and collaboration. Other than the statement below, no further comments are available at this time. I request that the quotes provided below be included in full without alterations or exclusions to eliminate any continued misinterpretation.
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MCCSC administration regrets that the focus on the timeline may be distracting from important, upcoming work regarding improvements to student schedules.
Dr. Hauswald states, “In May 2022, there was a preliminary discussion around the potentiality of studying the value and benefit of making improvements to student schedules based upon identified goals and priorities within the MCCSC Board of School Trustees 2021-2025 Strategic Plan. If you recall at that time, our corporation, along with the rest of the country, was emerging from the ramifications of a global pandemic, including significant and inequitable learning loss, chronic absenteeism, student and staff trauma, and a transition back to in-person instruction. As we looked toward the 2022-2023 school year, I charged district administrators and principals with the task of maximizing learning outcomes under a new ‘normal’; this task included a review of current secondary schedules and research on evidence-based, best practices.”
Dr. Winston states, “Based upon the complexities of returning to full-time, in-person instruction in August 2022, Dr. Hauswald’s request for a comprehensive review of secondary scheduling practices began with a preliminary discussion in May 2022, and continued with a work study team who met January through May 2023. The work study team was comprised of principals and school employees responsible for course scheduling. This team reviewed our secondary schools’ scheduling processes and studied scheduling models across Indiana and the country. After these meetings, Dr. Hauswald was informed on the work of the team, including considerations for a student high school experience survey as well as additional staff and community engagement.”
Dr. Hauswald states, “At the October regular monthly Board meeting, Board Member Grimes asked when the process to align schedules began. My answer referred to the more formal process to solidify a plan for high school experience surveys beginning March 2023. Followed by MCCSC-mandated formal discussions with the Monroe County Education Association (MCEA) beginning in September 2023, teacher engagement meetings in October 2023, student engagement meetings in October 2023, and community engagement meetings planned for November 2023. (The community engagement meetings were not conducted due to the MCCSC Board of School Trustees vote to create a new process for advising on high school schedules and assumed responsibility for approving any changes to high school schedules going forward.) The timeline to which I was referring was the formal process that began with high school experience surveys, followed by teacher discussion and my formal recommendation for an aligned high school schedule.”
At this point, MCCSC is forward focused on the important work of the committee and a desire to continually improve all aspects of our work with a charge to create more equitable learning opportunities for all students.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: MCCSC statement on origin of plan to align high school schedules
