School board to address student scheduling concerns
By Eliav Appelbaum eliav@theacorn.com

After a group of parents voiced their displeasure at the Moorpark Unified School District board meeting on Tuesday, the board showed some flexibility on the matter.

Even though the scheduling of teacher collaboration was not on the agenda, Superintendent Ellen Smith still proposed forming an advisory committee of parents, teachers and PTA members to address the controversial scheduling issue. Normally, the district does not comment about items not on the agenda.

Parents are upset about a schedule for teachers collaborating before school, which forces students at Chaparral and Mesa Verde middle schools to start school at 10 a.m. on Fridays and Thursdays, respectively.

"We do realize there are impacts when changing school schedules," said Smith, who hopes the committee would meet in the next two or three weeks. "The job of the committee will be to look at some feelings that have been expressed… we want to come up with a method for evaluating the schedule and the whole process. Most likely we'll conduct a survey to parents with an educational bend."

Although a letter mailed to concerned middle school parents who signed a petition urged them to flood the meeting, only eight parents showed up on Tuesday night. Only four addressed their concerns to the board during public comments. Parents signed a petition that stated they did not like the delayed starting time, preferring an early release.

Parents who spoke at the meeting made it clear that they supported the collaboration of teachers.

"Consistency with the scheduling would be great," said parent Paul Markley, a father of three children, two in grade school and one in middle school. "I know some kids aren't making it to school on time."

Richard Gillis, the president of the Moorpark Educators Association on behalf of teachers, also spoke Tuesday. Gillis said there are programs for students before school on the days with late starts.

"There are passive and active activities during collaboration time," Gillis said, "and more are planned for the future... We've been talking about this (collaboration) for about 20 years. Decisions we make are deliberate and intentional."