The James Logan Courier

By Beatrice Esteban,Courier Editor-in-Chief

Logan’s teachers have approved a new bell shedule for next year, which provides for an earlier start time, and a weekly voluntary collaboration period for teachers which will shorten the student day on Wednesdays.

According to Paul Bisbiglia, the Logan teacher who this year chairs the Logan Site-Based Decision Making committee, which spearheaded the election, almost 95 percent of teachers, or 162 of 171 Logan teachers, voted on the issue, with 127 voting yes and 35 casting no. Yes votes were cast by almost 79 percent , according to Bisbiglia.

That was enough to pass the modification to the teachers’ contract that allows for the new schedule.

The vote was held from March 28 to April 1.

Logan’s Site-Based Decision Making group has been trying to implement a collaboration period for several years, but previous attempts were rebuffed by teachers, 80 percent of which had to vote in favor.

In negotiations over their current contract with the district last year, that threshold was lowered to 70 percent, resulting in the approval of the contract waiver.

The drive for teacher collaboration, which is called for by the teachers’ contract with the New Haven Unified School District, was bolstered late last year when Language Arts Teacher Tim Campbell suggested that teacher collaboration be voluntary. Previous proposals required teachers to work longer hours without additional pay, which proved to be a sticking point in previous campaigns.

In order to become official, the waiver needs to be ratified by the Executive Board of the New Haven Teachers’ Association, the teachers’ local bargaining unit and part of the California Teachers Association.

Under the new schedule, first period will start at 8:15 a.m. instead of 8:40 on five days per week. Seventh period will end at 3:20 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and FRidays, rather than the current 3:30 p.m.

On Wednesdays, seventh period will end at 2:03 p.m. in order to provide a 72-minute collaboration period for teachers who choose to take advantage of it. Teachers will be allowed to leave at 2:03 p.m. if they choose.

While the new schedule changes to length of the workday, it doesn’t change the amount of time teachers or students spend in class per week.