No solution on Issaquah High School schedules
January 9, 2012
By Tom Corrigan
The Issaquah School District committee tasked with coming up with a uniform schedule for all three district high schools was unable to reach an agreement on what such a schedule might look like, according to Sara Niegowski, district executive director of communications.
The committee held its last meeting Dec. 14, Niegowski said.
“We reached agreement on some major points,” said Patrick Murphy, district director of secondary education.
Murphy worked as a chairman or facilitator for the schedule committee.
He will gather the group’s basic ideas and turn them into a report for Superintendent Steve Rasmussen, Niegowski said. That report should appear in this month, Murphy said.
School officials began looking at uniform high school schedules as a means to better share school resources and make other aspects of the school day more efficient.
“We do believe we can do better than the current scheduling,” Murphy said.
Both Issaquah and Skyline high schools use a six-period day, while Liberty High School has an extended schedule.
“The existing six periods is not optimal,” said Kelly Munn, a Sammamish resident and parent representative to the committee.
Committee members put a lot of thought into changing to a seven-period day at all schools, Murphy said. But one concern was that the change would strain the district’s budget by up to $3 million.
According to its supporters, Liberty’s schedule allows the school to offer far more elective classes than the other two comprehensive high schools. Some Liberty parents and students feel the Liberty schedule is worth protecting.
“I’m still being open-minded about the whole process,” Karen Odegard, president of the Liberty PTA, said.
But Odegard also immediately added she hopes whatever new schedule ultimately emerges doesn’t cut Liberty students access to elective classes, arguing other schedules somewhat limit students to core courses.
While the committee doesn’t like the schedules at Skyline and Issaquah, the schedule committee also didn’t land in favor of Liberty’s schedule, Munn said. The committee came to the conclusion Liberty students don’t take full advantage of the added electives and might not put enough time into core classes, she said.
Murphy said he hopes the committee’s work can guide the district going forward, even if no recommendation on a uniform high school schedule resulted from that work. He expressed some regret the committee didn’t arrive at a common schedule.
“In some ways, it was kind of a disappointment,” Murphy said.
But he added a belief that the committee learned a lot, that at a minimum some ideas could be implemented at the building level.
Once Murphy reports to Rasmussen, the administration will make its own report — and most likely some recommendations — to the school board.
Reach reporter Tom Corrigan at 392-6434, ext. 241, or tcorrigan@isspress.com.
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