Parents Continue Quest to Halt Middle School Schedule Changes

Area parents angry over the changes to the Central Bucks School District’s middle school schedule continued their opposition Wednesday, with more petitions, calls for election challenges and inquiries to the state Department of Education.

The expressions of anger and frustration mounted as parents searched for legal and administrative ways to stop the changes from taking effect this fall.

Meanwhile, the school board’s attorney said the changes were recommended by the district’s administrators and the board supported them.

“This was not a decision that the board made in a vacuum or on an oasis. This was a recommendation from the assistant superintendent in concert with the middle school principals,” the board’s solicitor, Jeff Garton, told DoylestownPatch Wednesday. “It was part of an ongoing process to make improvements to the scheduling. I guess it depends upon your perspective whether it’s an improvement or not, but they do think it is.”

Starting this fall, Central Bucks' five middle schools will change from seven periods to six. Classes will last 56 minutes instead of 46. Computer applications will be dropped from the curriculum.

"Special" classes - art, music, tech ed, family and consumer science and physical education and health - will now be called electives. Students will be limited to one elective each marking period.

The school board meeting Tuesday night opposed to the new schedule, which they said effectively eliminates electives completely for some students, most notably music students.

After the meeting, school board president Paul Faulkner said district administrators could have changed the schedule without the board’s approval.

“The board didn’t need to vote on it,” Faulkner said, “but we said, let’s do it anyway because we want to show our support.”

That vote was taken at .

Opposition swelled in the days that followed, and Faulkner said he prepared a long statement outlining his reasons for supporting the changes. He was unable to read more than a few words Tuesday night, however, before being heckled from the audience.

“I was very disappointed that we sat and took notes for three hours, and now they’ve all left, having no idea why I’m in favor of this,” Faulkner said after Tuesday’s meeting. “So now, their anger will grow.”

Petitioning for Change

Parents and students are channeling that anger in a couple different directions.

Some have signed an online petition to ask the Central Bucks School Board to repeal the schedule changes.

Adding 10 minutes to core subject classes such as math and science is not necessary when it means limiting the number of electives students can take, they said.

“Removing practically all electives is going to prevent students from being exposed to a variety of subjects that will help them grow as they progress through their schooling,” the petition reads, in part. “Taking away the arts is just as detrimental as taking away the core classes in an education.”

As of early Thursday morning, the petition had 530 signatures.

Studying the Law

Some are investigating whether the district’s actions are legal, and interested parents are getting a crash course in Pennsylvania education law.

“Planned instruction aligned with academic standards in the following areas shall be provided to every student in the middle level program,” reads a section of Pennsylvania code that many parents have circulated in recent days.

That section of state code, which regulates middle level public education, enumerates 11 study areas, from language arts, math, and science to health, safety and physical education, the arts and career education.

The passage seemingly bolsters the arguments of parents who say that the middle school changes aren’t just a bad idea, they’re illegal.

“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,” Tamara Gureghian, a lawyer and mother of children in the district, told the school board Tuesday night.

Gureghian, of Warrington, asked the board to revoke the changes. The current schedule, which requires students to sample all the electives, doesn’t just produce well-rounded, physically fit students, she said, it also “is the only system that meets the requirements of Pennsylvania state law.”

But Garton, the district’s attorney, said that is a matter of legal interpretation.

“The district takes the position that when it says ‘provides,’ it means ‘makes available.’ It doesn’t mean it’s mandatory,” Garton said. In other words, “offering the courses equals providing it” even if not all students take it.

Two other sections of state code also bolster the district’s position, Garton said.

“Planned instruction may be provided as a separate course or as an instructional unit within a course or other interdisciplinary instructional activity,” reads one part.

Garton said that means the district could offer health, for example, as a unit of study within another course, rather than as a standalone course.

That same section of code also mentions the study of dance, Garton said, but Central Bucks does not offer a dance class.

Another part of the state code reads, “School entities shall determine the most appropriate way to operate their middle level programs to achieve the purposes under subsection (b) and the academic standards in their strategic plans.”

Timothy Eller, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, said that means that local school districts have the power to make the day-to-day decisions.

“The general assembly mandates what standards students have to meet but how that’s accomplished through curriculum, planning, tools and instruction is a local decision,” Eller said Wednesday. “All of curriculum is a local decision.”

Parents who feel the new schedule violates state requirements could file a grievance with the state Department of Education, both Eller and Garton said.

“Then the state department would investigate whether the district is in compliance with the rules,” Garton said, adding that that hasn’t happened in Central Bucks in the roughly 12 years that he has been solicitor.

Petitions of a Different Kind

Regardless of whether the district’s changes are legal, it is clear that they are deeply unpopular among parents and students.

While talk of lawsuits and petitions swirl, talk of a different kind of petition also has begun – nominating petitions.

Opponents of the changes are buzzing about challenging the school board members who are up for election in 2013 – Faulkner, Stephen Corr, John Gamble and Jerel Wohl.

Others suggested recalling board members immediately, but Garton and another school law expert said Pennsylvania has no provision to recall public officials. (The section of code opponents had cited applies only to boroughs in Bucks County, not to school boards, and was rendered effectively unconstitutional by a state Supreme Court decision, they said.)

And as anger builds, many parents say they simply don't believe .

Changing the middle school schedule will result in the loss of teacher jobs, as the folks who teach computer applications will be reassigned or laid off. Other special subject area teachers could be let go, too, if the new schedule results in fewer students taking their classes.

"Everybody assumes the only possible reason they are doing this is to furlough teachers and save money," said one father, who asked not to be named. "They can't say that, because in Pennsylvania, you can't lay teachers off because of economic reasons. But that's what this is all about. Nothing else makes sense."