Flex Time reformed from past configurations
A new Flex Time configuration will start on Wednesday, Sept. 14.
The traditional Flex Time schedule will be changed during the 2016-2017 school year. During the current school year, Flex Time will be held during Wednesdays only, starting this Wednesday, Sept. 14. This change is to safeguard Flex Time from being canceled in light of school closings, as happened during the 2015-2016 school year.
Additional changes include Flex Time starting at 2:07 p.m., which extends Flex Time an extra 9 minutes compared to last year, for a total of 30 minutes.
Yet another change occurs during Flex Time itself. Student will be permitted to receive a pass from their Flex teacher to go see a send teacher within the same Flex period.
The length and format of Flex Time have been altered to “allow students the opportunity for greater depth when interacting with peers and teachers,” Principal Brett Bowers said in a letter to parents. In addition, weather-related school closures have been cause of Flex Time cancellation in the past, and the new schedule has been created to allow up to three days of unplanned closures Mr.Bowers wrote.
“I am excited to see these changes, ones designed to ensure the presence of Flex Time in our schedule despite unexpected developments that can occur during a school year,” Mr.Bowers stated.
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jon doe • Oct 22, 2016 at 7:52 am
The change in Flex time was done to give the teachers a pseudo pay raise. Flex time doesn’t count toward school hours. So imagine if half of every day was flex time – school might have to be open year round, that would mean the teachers have to be in the classroom more hours for the same pay. So less Flex time means more countable hours during the school year and hence less time the teachers have to be at school. Remember Flex time was one of the pillars of the change from a normal schedule to the trimesters. Mr. Bowers and Mr. Means told everyone that. Now they cut Flex time in half from 2 days to one day, and if the math is right by about 25% in time. That change didn’t take long to happen. Surprised the school board and News Graphic isn’t on this. That extra Flex time should be brought back. If this new Flex is better (longer and ability to move), why didn’t they keep it at 2 days? That would have made it less $ per hour for the teachers. May be a future article for the paper?
As far as weather related closures – Mr. Means didn’t build in enough extra school days in to the calendar and less then in the past. I don’t think it is snowing less in Mequon, we are still at the same risk for snow day. Why – a non cash pseudo pay raise for the teachers. We always had 2-3 extra days built into the calendar, now we have 1-2 days. In, the past if those snow days didn’t get used, the teachers (and students) were in class beyond the minimum state requirements (not bad for the students, but bad for the teachers). Now if we have an extra snow day, beyond what’s in the calendar, it is bad for the students (because they lose the Flex time that was sooo important to the new schedule), so the teachers were put first ahead of the students. If the teachers work one less day, it is a pay bump.
Way to go admin, 2 quiet examples of where students were not put first.
adviser • Oct 23, 2016 at 4:17 pm
Thank you for commenting. This year’s flex time schedule was done simply to ensure flex time would not be cancelled due to weather or other school closures as it was last year. It’s a one-year band-aid to a problem that occurred last year and will be re-evaluated when the 2017/18 school calendar is done. It was to put student needs first to ensure students had at least one time per week to contact teachers within the school day.