We have finalized next year’s master school schedule and are finalizing student homeroom placements now.
We will have one staff member retiring next school year, Ms. Mutafis in 3rd grade. We will no longer need a fifth 3rd grade classroom. It appears will continue to have five kindergarten classes and will need a fifth 1st grade class for the current five kindergarten classes as they move up.
We are also expecting to add aides to our third-grade classrooms next year. That will complete the 3rd Grade Success Act’s requirement of having instructional aides in all Pre-K-3rd grade classrooms.
We have again utilized Class Composer (https://www.classcomposer.com/) to generate next year’s class lists. Current teachers completed an electronic Student Card for all students in their homeroom. Students were given a numerical score for reading, math, writing, behavior, and work skills. We added in additional identifiers such as special education, EL services, 504 plans, gifted, and speech services. We also added teacher recommendations of students who should and should not be together. The program then ran an algorithm to create balanced classrooms. K-5 class placement announcements no longer occur in August. We want students to know their teacher for next year as the summer begins.
We will continue to have five 4th-grade classrooms next year. We will be using the same schedule as this year. Students will rotate through three teachers. One teacher will teach reading, another will teach math, and the third will teach science, social studies, and health.
We are changing the schedule for fifth grade. It does not make sense for the students to go from one teacher for Pre-K-3rd, three for 4th, back to two for 5th, and then up to seven in middle school. We will be returning to our pre-COVID style of schedule, where all students have all four fifth grade teachers. One teacher will teach reading, one will teach math, one will teach science and health, and one will teach social studies and art.
We will continue to provide updates as we finalize plans.