Middle Schools new student schedules should go in effect Monday: VIDEO

PARSIPPANY —Dr. Nancy Gigante, Acting Superintendent of Schools, announced at the Board of Education meeting on Thursday, September 24 the middle schools student schedules have been completed and should go in effect on Monday, September 28.

At the close of school on Friday, September 25, they will move the new schedules from Genesis’ test server to the live server. They will be instructing Genesis to make that switch. They will spend the majority of the weekend running the appropriate tests before reopening Genesis, hopefully, some time on Sunday.

Dr. Nancy Gigante’s read the following to a crowded room at the Dr. Frank Calabria Education Center:

“It was my hope that I would be in a position tonight to offer a firmer timeline for the implementation of the new middle school schedule, which returns us to the familiar 9-period 40-minutes per period schedule we have always been accustomed to prior to this school year.  Luckily I am able to do that.

Today we informed the middle school teachers of their teaching assignments for the new schedule.  Further, I explained in an email to the middle school staff that it is my goal to make tomorrow, the fourteenth day of school, the last day in the current schedule.  If I can accomplish that goal, it would mean that we will have our new schedule on Monday, September 28, before October even begins.  It would also mean that the first full week of school—because we haven’t had one yet—will be in the new schedule.  Finally, it would also mean that the movement of the new schedule from Genesis’ test server to our live server would be successful, something I can only be sure of by actually instructing Genesis to make that switch from the test server to the live server.  We will do that tomorrow at the close of school and spend the majority of the weekend running the appropriate tests before reopening Genesis, hopefully, some time on Sunday.

If, in fact, we are successful, it would mean that our team of middle school counselors, content area supervisors, building administrators, and academic technology staff put together two master schedules for two different schools in nine school days, a feat that could never have been accomplished without a lot of hands on deck and a lot of support from this entire district.  What had traditionally took—and under the right circumstances should take—five weeks to complete, we will have completed in these nine days.  I know for many of you it feels nine days too long…but I assure you we have kept your frustrations in mind as we’ve moved to get this new schedule in place as soon as, like I said at the last meeting, “humanly possible.”

I want to spend some time now going through what needs to be explained so that parents, students, and teachers can begin the new schedule with clarity and understanding.

• Although we are looking at the year now in trimesters—that is three distinct parts—we must label them in Genesis as Q2, Q3, and Q4. We were not able to rename the periods of time.  The year is still divided into three parts.  As explained at the last Board of Education meeting, students and parents will receive narrative comments from the teachers they have had for these fourteen days, indicating their levels of progress in those courses.

• All grade levels will have our five core courses—Language Arts, Reading and Writing, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Science—along with Physical Education and Health five days a week, thus covering six of the nine periods. All students will also have a five-day a week, 40-minute lunch, thereby accounting for seven periods out of the daily nine.  In grades seven and eight, an eighth assignment will be a five-day a week language, and finishing their ninth slot, three different electives to cover the three trimesters.  For sixth grade, they will have the five core courses, Physical Education and Health, lunch, and then two periods divided into trimesters for a total of six other courses.  All sixth graders will have Current and Emerging Technologies, World Cultures, and four other elective periods.
• Having returned all classes to five days a week and having reinstated the third full team at Central Middle School, we have subsequently hired and continue to hire for some positions. Teachers who are expected to begin teaching in our district soon will be designated by the school mascot and a number for a teacher who has not yet been hired—for example “Knight 1 TBD”—or the school mascot and a last name for the teacher who is expected to begin in our district soon—for example “Cougar-Smith.”
• Keeping a world language course in the sixth grade proved very, very difficult to staff. Language specialists are not easy to find, and this would keep our students in classes with temporary substitutes longer than we were comfortable with.  Therefore, the decision was made to run World Cultures, taught by a world language teacher, and have that teacher infuse a beginning exposure into one of our languages—French, Italian, or Spanish.
• Current and Emerging Technologies was previously a seventh grade course, but has been moved to a trimester in sixth grade, in order to ensure that all three grade levels have had this computer experience. Our current seventh graders had computers last year, and our eighth graders also when they were in sixth.  Content supervisors and the Director of Secondary Education will be working with these teachers to make any necessary adjustments to the curriculum.
• In scheduling electives for students, we used the prioritization they had provided to their counselors last school year when we were taking course requests. As much as possible, the counselors endeavored to schedule students for electives that they had given high priority.
• For music students in particular, we asked the music teachers what would programmatically be the best way to schedule students who wanted one semester of music. They determined that two trimesters would be appropriate and asked that we divide students by instrumentation and choral categories, which we did.  In addition, sixth grade full year music students, for the first time, were also able to receive another elective in addition to music.

That is a basic overview of what to expect to see in the new schedule.  In these nine days we have been able to restore five-day a week classes at all grade levels in Reading and Writing and Physical Education and Health, we have been able to return students to a 40-minute lunch period, and we have been able reinstate a third full team at Central Middle School.

Before I conclude, I need to thank the hard work of a lot of people.  In particular, the middle school counselors and middle school teaching staff for their professionalism and dedication to making these first days of school meaningful and engaging for students.  To all of our administrative team, from the content area supervisors to building administrators, to my fellow Senior Cabinet members, thank you for exhibiting the hard work and stamina that has come to characterize our district.  To several staff members outside of these people who have also given of their time and provided us with an extra set of eyes to double-check our work as we tried to move so quickly throughout this process—Eric Berkowitz, Tricia Morsillo, Lou Miller, and Casey Maass.  And to all of the students and parents who have been patient with us throughout a trying situation…thank you.

Again, it is with great hope that I announce we plan to shut down Genesis at the end of the school day tomorrow and instruct Genesis to move our work from their test server to our live server, thus enabling us to perform necessary tests to make sure everything got transferred correctly before opening school on Monday with the new schedule in place.  Parents and staff members will receive School Messenger notices throughout the process.”