CB Backtracked After State Intervened

When Central Bucks School District administrators revised their proposal for middle school schedules on Monday, they characterized the change as a response to parental concerns.

A state official on Tuesday, however, said the district's first plan appeared to be unacceptable.

It allowed students to opt out of some special subjects such as PE or family and consumer science and effectively prevented music students from taking most other electives.

"Based upon documents that were submitted by residents of the community, the Department has been in contact with the district regarding the plan it was considering implementing to inform it that, based on the information we had, it would not satisfy the requirements of Chapter 4 (Academic Standards and Assessment)," state Department of Education spokesman Timothy Eller told Doylestown Patch on Tuesday in an emailed statement.

Eller was referring to the Pennsylvania Code.

Section 22, which deals with middle schools, reads in part, “Planned instruction aligned with academic standards in the following areas shall be provided to every student in the middle level program," and enumerates 11 subject areas, including art, family and consumer science, and technology education.

Tamara Gureghian, a lawyer and mother of children in the district, quoted that very section .

“The law makes it clear that the requirements for these subjects are, and I quote, exactly the same as the requirements for math, science, language arts and social studies,” Gureghian said then.

District solicitor Jeff Garton told Doylestown Patch last week that the district interpreted the passage to mean that it was enough to offer the course, but not all students had to - or had to be able to - take it.

“The district takes the position that when it says ‘provides,’ it means ‘makes available.’ It doesn’t mean it’s mandatory,” Garton said then.

But on Tuesday, school board member Geri McMullin said the board was informed by the state that it was wrong.

"We were getting mixed messages from Harrisburg. Five people said we could do this, and one person said we couldn’t," McMullin said. "We think it means make (the class) available, but maybe five out of six people at the state say 'make available is fine,' but then one person higher up the hierarchy says 'you have to provide it.' "

The Revised Proposal

On Monday, district administrators that would use the alternating A/B day schedule that the district uses now.

Under the new proposal, the middle schooler's day would consist of six subject periods, the five "core" academic subjects of English, Reading or World Language, Math, Science and Social Studies, and one "special" subject on an A day and a second special on a B day.

The special subjects would switch each semester.

Computer applications still would be dropped from the curriculum; the district has said technology instruction would be folded into other subject areas, but hasn't made public any details on how, exactly, that would be done.

Classes still will run for 56 minutes, preserving the additional 10 minutes each that the board wanted, McMullin said. The revised plan also preserves resource time, a period at the end of the day during which students can get started on homework or seek out teachers for extra help, she said.

The revised plan again requires students to take all the special subjects - a change to which McMullin said she reluctantly agreed.

"I did not feel we should require anything," she said. "If kids don’t want to be in 8th grade chorus, for example, they don’t sing and they disrupt the class. I really wanted to offer them the choice, and we don’t have that under the revised plan, so that was something I had to give up. That’s what compromise is."

McMullin said she threw her support behind the original plan because it offered students more class time and a reduced class load.

She felt those changes would greatly benefit students such as her own granddaughter for whom school success is a hard-fought battle.

"Many of the people who are opposed to this, their kids are all on distinguished or high honors. Their kids can handle all of it, and they want all of it," said the longtime school board member. "But that’s not reality for your normal, middle-of-the-road kids who really can’t handle all of that and need more time in class. People are saying, 'our kids don’t need more time.' Well, most of the kids don’t get it all in the first 20 minutes. That’s who I’m looking out for."

McMullin has represented Doylestown on the Central Bucks School Board for 29 years.

In those nearly three decades, she said she has learned that few people show up to school board meetings unless they're upset about something.

"No one comes to board meetings to tell us what a great job we’re doing and how much they like us," she said. "We don’t hear from many people who are happy with it. That’s just the way it is.

"I hope that some of the parents and students who expressed their opinions know that we listened to them," she continued. "If they want to come and ask questions, that’s a healthy process, as long as people are respectful."

McMullin said she hopes parents and students who lobbied to restore access to electives are happy with the revised plan. Still, she said she realizes "some will not be happy no matter what we do unless we delay it."

The board, however, does not want to delay the decision any longer, McMullin said, because the district is starting its search for a new superintendent to replace Dr. N. Robert Laws.

No superintendent candidate would want to walk into such an uncertain situation, she said.

Meanwhile, Eller, the state Department of Education spokesman, said the department still is waiting for the school district to file an official plan outlining its proposed changes.