Claremont
The board ruled the school district must end the A/B schedule and revert to the former block schedule when school starts in September.
McGoodwin only said appeal was an option the district was considering; no final decision has been made.
In the interim, McGoodwin said the district is reviewing several steps to ensure a smooth transition for students from the A/B schedule used last year to the block schedule, which was last in place through the 2014-15 school year.
School officials also are looking at several other changes for the coming school year. They include discontinuing advisory periods as well as the flex block, a student intervention period for extra help that occurred during the day. Officials propose replacing it with a 30-minute extra help session after school.
Other proposed changes include adjusting the 2016-17 Program of Study, student handbook, core academic course sequencing, curriculum documents, as well as certain plans/programs in place for the October 2016 visit by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. In addition, the bell schedule planned for 2016-17 will revert to the 2013-14 schedule.
McGoodwin also said in the email the additonal 8 percent in salary Stevens teachers were to receive in the arbitration award with A/B schedule for additional instructional time for the upcoming school year will be eliminated.
In granting the Sugar River Education Association’s cease and desist motion, the labor board upheld two earlier decisions by an independent arbitrator stating the school district had violated the collective bargaining agreement by implementing the A/B schedule. The new schedule’s format has students taking courses every other day for a year while the block schedule is set up with four classes every day for a semester. A side agreement in the contract, that the labor board cited, specifically states use of the block schedule.
The School Board implemented the new schedule last fall despite the union voting twice to oppose it. Attempts to resolve the disagreement through mediation failed and the dispute was submitted to an independent arbitrator who backed the union again in his most recent decision in April. When the school district refused to comply with the decision, the union filed with the labor relations board.
Still to be decided is the unfair labor practice charge filed by the union. Briefs for that motion have to be filed by July 15.
