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Copyright © 2016 Albuquerque Journal

Albuquerque’s 13 public high schools will get a new schedule this fall, but the $4.3 million revamp, adopted at the urging of the teachers union, is raising questions of favoritism, fiscal irresponsibility and concerns it is a setback to efforts to improve academic performance in APS high schools.

Under the new “7/5” plan, high school teachers will have five classes a day, rather than the current six-class load that began this academic year.

Reversing a decision the APS Board of Education made last year and returning to 7/5 will require 70 to 80 additional teachers and staff – an expense that will bump up the projected APS budget shortfall from $5.2 million to $9.5 million.

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Board member Peggy Muller-Aragón said dozens of people have told her they don’t support the change, particularly at a time when the district is “pinching pennies.”

She predicts negative impacts on students despite administrators’ assurances they will do all they can to shield classrooms from cuts.

About 4 percent of APS’ $687 million operating budget, or roughly $28 million, goes to central office administrators and departments like finance, information technology and human resources.

The vast majority – 83 percent – supports salaries for school employees like teachers, principals, secretaries, educational assistants, social workers, librarians and nurses.

“Where is that over $4 million going to come from?” asked Muller-Aragón, who heads the board’s finance committee. “Central Office is such a tiny, tiny part of the budget. It’s a sliver in there.”

Muller-Aragón was the only APS board member to speak against the new schedule during a Feb. 26 meeting, though the district’s budget committee backed a budget that did not include it. The committee is made up of roughly 20 administrators from the schools and district central office.

One of the committee members, Zuni Elementary principal Frank Chiki, elaborated on his personal concerns in a recent Journal letter to the editor.

To him, the board’s support for the 7/5 schedule is “unconscionable” and “fiscally irresponsible.”

“This decision has totally confounded me, especially since it was not the recommendation of the Budget Committee,” he wrote. “The Budget Committee must now find cuts that will reach our schools, directly affecting student learning.”

Chiki, who has been an APS principal since 2011, declined a Journal request for further comment.

Todd Resch, APS’ associate superintendent for high school education, acknowledged the new schedule’s cost but said APS is conducting an “overall evaluation of our organization” to improve efficiency and find savings.

“I am hopeful that we can seek the additional resources to support this high school schedule and the remainder of the financial burden,” he said.

Prep time dispute

Another sticking point for the schedule’s critics: It only benefits one group of teachers.

That’s bad for the morale of APS “elementary, middle school, central office and other support staff,” Chiki wrote.

He questioned why the district will almost double its deficit “really just so that high school teachers teach fewer classes.”

The new 7/5 schedule includes one period for preparation and one for departmental planning in groups called “Professional Learning Communities.”

This school year, under the current schedule, high school teachers still had prep periods but went to PLC on Thursdays, when students are released early.

Middle school and elementary school teachers don’t get as much PLC time, which Muller-Aragón argues is unfair.

“They want the same thing – they want time to sit and plan with the grade level or the next grade,” she said. “We need to treat all teachers, all employees, all kids equally. … If you are going to give something to one, you can’t leave the others out.”

APS hopes to eventually offer scheduled PLC time for teachers at every grade level, according to Resch, who said he doesn’t want to “pit levels against each other.”

But Muller-Aragón, a retired kindergarten teacher, feels elementary school educators are getting shortchanged when it comes to prep time in general. They have students in their classrooms most of the day, Muller-Aragón said, but still have to plan for every subject.

Contractually, elementary school teachers receive “a minimum of 220 minutes for preparation each week” in “20-minute block minimums.” In addition, they get two consecutive hours for prep Wednesdays.

Middle school and high school teachers receive a full prep period daily.

“(Elementary teachers) should have the same amount of time,” Muller-Aragón said. “You should do your best to give everybody that time or not give it to anybody because you are going to have teachers who are going to be upset, and rightly so.”

‘Beaten down’

On the other side, many high school teachers say the 7/5 schedule is a necessity, not a luxury.

The Albuquerque Teachers Federation strongly backed the change during a Feb. 17 “teach-in” demonstration at the APS board meeting. Nearly two dozen teachers spoke during public comment, describing exhaustion and frustration.

“Teachers are beaten down by excessive workloads that often have them working 12-hour days,” said Tanya Kuhnee, a West Mesa High School English teacher and AFT’s high school leader.

Muller-Aragón listened to the complaints but feels educators who are on the edge of burnout might not be cut out for the profession.

“You go through anything when it’s a calling, and I believe that teaching really is a calling,” she said. “I just don’t know how you can feel burned out watching kids learn. … If it really is making you burn out, it’s not worth your health.”

Several of the teachers who addressed the board also mentioned feeling like their wishes were ignored when the current schedule was adopted.

But former APS interim Superintendent Brad Winter, who spent a career at APS in various positions, believes the district “did due diligence with the issue.” Winter stepped in after Winston Brooks resigned in August 2014 and presided over the schedule change.

“I thought we did a process – we talked about it, we met with teachers,” Winter said. “My guess is some people would say it isn’t enough.”

While the change saved money, Winter stressed that he also believed it would improve education.

APS’ 7/6 schedule was modeled after Rio Rancho Public Schools, which has stronger graduation rates and test scores than its larger neighbor. Eighty-four percent of RRPS seniors earned a cap and gown in 2014, compared with 63 percent at APS.

Under the 7/6 schedule now in place, students saw teachers in their core English and math classes more often, while still getting some longer 90-minute periods for things like science labs.

“We made some modifications and thought it would serve our students better along with saving a lot of money,” Winter said. “That was the motivation for doing it the way that we did it.”

Short lived

This fall, amid complaints about the 7/6 schedule, APS and the union put together a schedule committee that included a teacher, parent, student and principal or principal designee from each high school.

Resch said the student participants were universally behind the committee’s 7/5 proposal, adding that the goal was not just to benefit teachers.

In his letter, Chiki questioned whether going back to a 7/5 schedule actually will harm kids because class sizes will go up as educators scale back their workloads.

APS is exploring “more efficient scheduling,” Resch said, but it is too early to say what will happen.

Under New Mexico Public Education Department rules, APS’ maximum “student load” is 157 for high school English teachers and 168 for non-English teachers.