Friday, December 18, 2009

Your help needed. Your presence wanted.

Mr. Fritch put out an e-mail this week detailing several items of interest with respect to our work completing the Garfield Plan and submitting it in January, including a six-point outline of areas in the plan needing immediate faculty input, and contact information for the UTLA point person for preparing the final draft. Here are links to the pertinent elements.
We will hope to see as many of you as can possibly be there, wearing your red, in front of the school on Monday, December 21, at 12:15 p.m. for the Garfield UTLA rally and demonstration. (Be sure to confirm with Clare Martinet in advance if you want lunch!) As this morning's LA Times story demonstrates to this writer, the district continues its attacks and scapegoating of teachers. Our unity is our defense.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Bell Schedule Decision Time

The Design Team is working to complete the Garfield Plan for submission to the superintendent's office in January. At present, they are deciding on a bell schedule that will promote intervention programs while best serving the needs of Garfield High School as a whole institution.

Faculty are asked to select a bell schedule for the Design Team to adopt by voting in the online survey at http://surveys.polldaddy.com/s/21D98CBEA035E116/. The revised deadline is Friday.

Here are the three bell schedule options currently on the table for the Design Team.
Additionally, Mr. Rico on Track B, supported by Mr. Gonzalez, the Athletic Director, suggested that Garfield look at the 6-period-day intervention schedule in use at La Serna High School in the Whittier Union school district (along with several other California high schools holding the Distinguished Schools designation). He included a link to their PowerPoint in his LAUSD Webmail to the faculty, Dec. 11. Here are some of the main items he located on the La Serna website (www.wuhsd.k12.ca.us/whittierlshs/):
Finally, some of the discussions and arguments that have been raised about the various options can be reviewed at the links here:
Please continue to follow and participate in the discussion that has been taking place via LAUSD Webmail.

Voting will be open through Friday, December 18. Again, faculty members can access the poll online to vote directly on the survey website:

http://surveys.polldaddy.com/s/21D98CBEA035E116/

Questions about the process should be directed to Brian Fritch at brian.fritch@lausd.net.