PLATTSBURGH — The old saying, 'Time is of the essence,' has never been more true for area public schools.
As many districts face state-aid restrictions and budget woes, diminishing time in schools, educators said, is just as concerning as diminishing funds, if not more so.
"For a long time, I would have said there is a balance between the value of time and value for funding in education," James "Jake" Short, superintendent of Plattsburgh City School District, said in an email.
"In current times, funding is greatly restricted, and more intense (state) mandates have been added on. Time clearly has become a more valuable commodity."
Those added mandates include the implementation of the Common Core Learning Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy and Mathematics and the Annual Professional Performance Review of teachers and principals.
A FULL PLATE
The Learning Standards Initiative, intended to ensure that all public-school students in the state are prepared for career or academic success after high school, requires the massive overhaul of English language arts and math curriculums in many schools.
Similarly, the Review Initiative requires schools to establish data-driven models for measuring student growth, which are to be used in assessing the effectiveness of teachers.
The state mandates that schools have the Performance Review in place by the end of this school year and the Learning Standards by the beginning of next.
"There's too much being dumped on us too quickly from the state of New York," said Rod Sherman, president of the Plattsburgh Teachers Association.
Short said in a separate interview that in order for data analysis and curriculum revisions to be done right, district teachers and administrators need time to discuss details together, so that methods and curriculums not only flow from one grade level to the next but are consistent across district buildings.
"It's a lot on the plate for our administrators, as well as the teachers, when we've been given such strict time lines to adhere to," said Laura Marlow, superintendent of Northern Adirondack Central School District.
"If I had a wish list, one of the things on that wish list would be more time."
'ENDLESS WORK'
But the fact remains that the work must get done, and for many teachers, that means spending nights, weekends and vacations doing it.
Michele Bushey, who teaches living environment at Saranac High School, said that teachers' daily classroom responsibilities, such as instructing students, conferencing with parents and colleagues, setting up classroom materials and helping struggling pupils, consume the workday.
"The large majority of grading papers and developing lessons takes place at the teacher's home or at school after the scheduled workday is done," she said by email.
"When you look specifically at the time a teacher will need to prepare new lessons, I assure you, the new regulations will have teachers and administrators working endlessly beyond the scheduled workday."
'CREATIVE LOSS' In addition to teachers' personal time, students' instructional time must also be sacrificed for professional development. "We have to embed at least two more early release days to get faculty knowledgeable about the new mandates," Marlow said. Plattsburgh is also forced to include two additional early release days on next year's academic calendar for the same reason, according to Short. Of course, less instructional time doesn't mean less curriculum for teachers and students to get through. "The teachers will have to be able to deliver the same amount of material in a shorter span of time," Marlow said. Less time will make academic lessons more focused, Short explained, but will likely make the implementation of creative, supplemental activities difficult. "In some ways, we get more efficient, and in other ways, we lose some of the special things school can do for kids," he said. One possible solution to the time dilemma, Short said, would be to lengthen the school year. "The demands are such now that I think we could really benefit from a three-semester school year instead of a two-semester school year." But doing so, he noted, would cost a great deal of money, which many schools simply do not have.
Email Ashleigh Livingston at: alivingston@pressrepublican.com
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