Sterling Public Schools OK early out for teacher work groups

STERLING — Starting this school year, Sterling Public Schools will assemble teachers and interventionists into groups that will meet once a week to help struggling students.

The board of education voted 5 to 1 on Wednesday and adopted the plan, even though it requires the district to dismiss classes an hour early on that day so the teachers and specialist can confer.

Board members, anticipating the disruptions early dismissal would have on families, especially at the elementary school level, said the administration gets one year to show this approach works.

“We’d better know within a year,” Superintendent Tad Everett replied.

Everett gave unequivocal support for the presentation provided by Matt Birdsley, director of curriculum and instruction, to establish professional learning communities, or PLCs.

“We believe wholeheartedly this is what our students need,” Everett said.

The proposal had been months in the making, with Birdsley providing updates to the board along the way.

On Wednesday, board members examined its finer points in a lengthy discussion.

Julie Zuidema was the lone “no” vote. She prefaced her remarks by saying in five years she had supported all the administration’s recommendations, even those during the pandemic that were at odds with the wishes of some parents. She also appreciated that the administration had tested other options to schedule PLCs within the course of the school day before presenting the proposal requiring early dismissal.

“I understand and respect the need for collaborative time,” Zuidema said. “Ultimately, it’s time out of the classroom. And coming out of COVID, kids need time in the classroom. … I don’t think it’s a bad proposal. It’s the timing. I’d like to see a return to routine.”

She also asked whether the evaluation data that the administration would depend upon for comparisons might be skewed by 2020′s pandemic lag in learning and changes in math and English curriculum the district has implemented in recent years.

Birdsley said that PLCs are about teachers being able to confer, identify and share specific student needs, then strategically address them in short order: improving teacher efficacy and teaching clarity. “The minutes we lose, we’ll get back in gains,” he said.

Board member Narcisco Puentes asked for a rundown on the various assessments the district would be using. Birdsley listed them, including STAR assessments and common English Language Arts and Math test scores, and how they are compared with the state’s benchmarks established by the Illinois Priority Learning Standards.

Julie Aitken, who served as moderator of the meeting in the absence of board President Pam Capes, stressed the need to communicate with parents after the vote and for the administration to provide updates during the course of the 2022-23 school year.

“That communication is huge,” Aitken said, especially in regard to after school options for middle schoolers, even if they have not availed themselves of them in the past.

For Savannah Mussington, the decision pulled her in two directions. “I’ve never had such knots in my stomach,” she said.

As a professional educator, Mussington said she is an advocate for implementing PLCs. But the potential unraveling of family schedules and the need for after school care caused by early dismissal must be considered. “I can’t help thinking about the impact it will have on elementary school families the most,” she said.

Birdsley said the administration had discussions with the YMCA about extending after school programming. “They are on board” with offering to cover that hour at a minimal cost increase while also providing scholarships for those in financial need.

Last year, the average cost of after school supervision was $8 a day. These programs are held on campus.

Birdsley said feasibility of running a second bus route on that day hasn’t yet been discussed with the bus service, First Student.

At this point during the discussion, Everett and Birdsley spelled out what was at stake: The achievement gap that exists for underperforming students, which was identified by the state when three schools in the district were targeted for improvement in 2018.

“We haven’t rebounded,” Birdsley said emphatically, then explained that while year-to-year scores are on a better trajectory and the gains in math reflect an emphasis on that subject, that group of students requires intervention.

“We are at a place we don’t want to be at educationally,” Everett said. “We have underperforming students. We do not have the time for staff to collaborate.”

PLCs is the best alternative, Everett said.

“This is the missing piece that needs to be in place for our struggling students,” he said.

It was Steve Brenner who brought up accountability: “How will we know … if this is really making a difference?”

Everett said the PLCs will be structured, teachers will have the information to identify and address needs, and the metrics of academic performance will be shared in the spring.

The next step, Everett said, is to confer with teachers to select the day in the week that works best for early dismissal, then communicate that with parents.

Wednesday or Friday are likely choices based on initial conversations.