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Word comes from tonight's Madison Central School Board meeting that the district will return to a semester system by fall 2009. The recommendation from the trimester committee* (which is now linked on tonight's agenda page): "Create a new semester scheduling model that honors benefits of current service and practice while opening opportunities for the future needs of children in our region." (I have a bad feeling the trimester committee might have had to spend one full meeting of its three unpublicized meetings -- April 8, April 22, and May 5 -- just coming up with the wording for that rather ungainly statement.)
Whatever the "benefits of current service and practice" might be, they weren't enough (reports my source) to outweigh problems with transferring credits, aligning schedules within the district and with other schools, and, apparently, some academic achievement concerns.
So check your schedules, freshmen: you might have to refigure how to get your credits in after the change.
A question of great import to students: when the school district switched to trimesters, it also eliminated study halls. Will the high school be bringing back that time-honored tradition as well?
*You can see the names of the committee in the PDF document finally provided by the district, or you can save the download time and read them here:
Committee Members:
Dr. Ralph Wagoner: Facilitator
Margaret Sumption: Consultant
Vince Schaefer: Superintendent
Craig Walker: School Board Member
Sharon Knowlton: MHS Principal
Cotton Koch: Madison Middle School Principal/Parent
Mike Ricke: Middle School Teacher
Holly Renken: Middle School Teacher
Jenn Richards: MHS/MS Teacher
Luke Sursely: MHS/MS Teacher
Kristi Olson: MHS Teacher/Parent
Dawn Wiebers: MHS Teacher
Diana Larson: MHS Counselor
Renae Roeman: Parent
Dennis Zingmark: Parent
Kathy Engbrecht: Parent
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3 days ago
Thank goodness somebody finally listened and axed trimesters. It only took about 12 years!
ReplyDeleteIt’s clear that the change from trimesters to semester affects the High School the most. Given that, I feel the High School was greatly under-represented on the committee.
ReplyDeleteLuke Sursley is in his first year at the High School, Jenn Richards has been around for five years or so, and Dawn Wiebers is pretty new as well. Missing from the committee of the voices of veteran Madison High School educators such as Doc Miller, Tom Osterberg, Bill Thurow, Maxine Unterbrunner, Carolyn Goldammer, Roy Lindsay, Rick Jensen Orlyn Larson, or Chrys Benning. All of them have significant teaching experience at Madison High School and a large number of them oversaw the transition from semesters to trimesters and thus the benefits of both systems and what it took to make the change. Kristi Olson was the only person on the committee with significant experience teaching at the High School level in Madison.
Call me crazy, but I think High School educators might know the most about educating at the High School level. I wish the board had reached out to those people and their opinions on the matter.
Hi, Brett! Glad Dak isn't keeping you from reading the news. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI noticed that the teachers included few of the "old guard" who labored under semesters at MHS. I think only Diana Larson fit that category. But if that "youth-stacking" would have had any effect, I would have thought it would have led to more support for the familiar trimester system rather than recommendation to go back to the good old days that few if any of the committee could recall. I'd love to see the committee minutes, see how their discussions flowed!
Wasn't trimesters more favored by teachers because it was a lot less work for them?
ReplyDeleteMy opinion is that it's the students who are affected most, and it's the students' welfare that should be looked out for first and foremost.
They did the right thing finally. Better late than never.
If trimesters were so great, more teachers in more schools would be choosing that route. But they aren't, so why? Simple - trimesters aren't the right answer.
"a lot less work"? When I changed jobs from Madison's trimesters to Montrose's semesters, I felt like my work got a little easier. I felt less rushed to cover and review material in 18 weeks than in 12 weeks. How about you teachers who moved in from other districts -- what was your impression of the trimester workload?
ReplyDelete