After weeks of negotiations and uncertainty, school district administrators will present elementary and secondary school bell schedules to the Board of Education during a special meeting Wednesday night, July 29. The meeting starts at 5 p.m. (See the agenda and Zoom link HERE.)
At its July 16 meeting, the Board approved a plan to start the year in distance learning mode, with flexibility for a return to campus as public health conditions allow. Alameda County remains on a state watch list due to the spread of COVID-19 and Governor Gavin Newsom announced on July 17 that schools in counties on the watch list may not open for in-person learning until they are off the list for 14 days.
In an email to the school community on Tuesday, Superintendent Randall Booker said that “I am recommending that the Board vote to adopt the revised Daily Instructional Bell Schedules for our elementary and secondary schools under both a Distance Learning (as we open the school year) and/or In-person (when permitted by the state) instructional model.”
According to the memos, the Bell Schedule Committee (consisting of members of the Association of Piedmont Teachers and PUSD) agreed to the following parameters:
- Students will attend classes (either in a distance learning or in-person learning model) 4-5 days per week under a specific schedule that incorporates both daily synchronous (live teaching) and asynchronous learning (pretaped assignments or work) opportunities.
- Minimum Instructional Minutes:
– 180 minutes of daily instruction for transitional kindergarten and kindergarten students (as required by Ed. Code43501(a)).
– 230 minutes of daily instruction for 1st – 3rd grade students (as required by Ed. Code 43501(b)).
– 240 minutes of daily instruction for 4th – 12th grade students (as required by AB 77: 43501(c)).
- Daily attendance recorded for distance learning sessions (as required by Ed. Code 43504 (d) (1))
- 30 minute duty-free lunch for teachers and staff.
- Grades K-5, a teachers’ direct instruction (any combination of in-person and synchronous teaching) cannot exceed 1200 min per week.
- Grades 6-12, a teachers’ direct instruction (in-person, or synchronous) cannot exceed 20 hours per week.
- Elementary teachers will be provided with a minimum of 1 hour of preparation time per day.
- Secondary teachers (1.0FTE) will be provided with no less than 475 minutes of prep per week.
- At the secondary level, schedules will include a 10 minute passing period.