Hawaii Law Demanding More Instructional Days Hurts Innovative School
While Hawaii lawmakers debate whether the state can afford to implement a law requiring more classroom time for public school students, a better solution might be just under their noses — and it’s free.
The law, which was to go into effect with the 2011-2012 school year, mandates a minimum number of school hours and days per year. It was pushed through the Legislature last year by parents angry over the Furlough Fridays fiasco, during which students lost 17 days of class.
One school on Maui hopes the law is delayed — so it can keep its already longer instructional day.
For the last six years, Hana High and Elementary School has operated on a four-day school week, with longer days Monday through Thursday, and has reserved all its tutoring and teacher planning time for Fridays. The rural school enrolls about 330 students and has about 25 full-time teachers.
“There wasn’t a single negative about it,” said principal Rick Paul. “Our test scores went up1, the staff were 100 percent on board, the students loved it and the parents appreciated it.”
The school did a poll of its parents and only one couple had issues with the schedule. Not only is Hana’s alternative schedule popular, but it has also saved the school money. And it made Hana the only public, non-charter school in Hawaii that didn’t have to cut a single minute of regular classroom time during Furlough Fridays. The school still runs buses and the cafeteria on Fridays, but it saves on hiring outside tutors because the teachers can do it themselves.
The model has had a lot of “unintended positive consequences,” said Paul, and could work for other schools statewide
How It Works
To set its own schedule, Hana had to receive an exemption from the Board of Education-approved default daily schedule for schools.
The default teacher schedule consists of a five-day school week that includes (in minutes):
| Level | Instructional Time | Preparation Time | Lunch | Faculty Meetings/Passing Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elementary | 1,415 | 200 | 150 | 335 |
| Secondary | 1,285 | 200 | 150 | 465 |
The teachers’ contract allows schools to seek permission to redistribute those minutes and hours, as long as they never exceed a 35-hour work week for teachers.
Hana has received permission to do that for the last six years.
By lengthening each of the four days and trimming the amount of time students spend in recess and passing between classes, Hana’s teachers manage to fulfill the number of required instructional hours in just four days. They then come to campus for about four hours on Fridays to take care of other business that normally would have been distributed in smaller chunks throughout the week.
“We didn’t create time, we just moved it around so it could be more useful,” Paul said. “We really created a schedule that works for us.”
The Baby
For Hana students, Fridays are a bonus. They can still come to school and get tutoring or engage in voluntary arts and culture classes taught by local nonprofit .
“This schedule actually gives the students more instructional time, because it gives them the tutoring and arts and cultural activities, which they didn’t have before,” Paul said.
The ones that don’t come in for tutoring or arts and culture can spend a three-day weekend doing what they wish.
Meanwhile, their teachers spend four hours meeting, strategizing, preparing for class and working on individualized education plans — things that would otherwise be squeezed in during the rest of the week.
All of this still honored the hours outlined in the teachers’ collective bargaining agreements, and therefore cost no additional money.
“We were able to lump together all the bits and pieces and fragments of time that were normally found in the default schedule,” Paul said.
And not only was it free, but it actually saved the school money, too.
The new law could have a price tag for the state of $55 million to pay for the teachers’ extra hours, which would have to be negotiated.
Out With The Bathwater
Until this year, Hana has had no problem receiving its exemption from the default schedule, because the Board of Education had the authority to grant the exemption. But the new state law has forced the board to reject Hana’s waiver request for the 2011-2012 school year.
, passed last year, increases the amount of time teachers are supposed to spend instructing and mandates a 180-day school year for students. Previously, school time requirements weren’t established by state law, but were negotiated in the teachers’ contract.
| Instructional Requirements | School Days | Elementary Hrs. | Secondary Hrs. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009-11 Contract | (35-hour work week)* | 849 | 771 |
| 2011-13 (not negotiated yet) | 180 | 915 | 990 |
| Difference | — | +66 (7%) | +219 (28%) |
*Current law doesn’t mandate the number of school days. The department uses a 178-day schedule.
Even though Hana’s proposed schedule fulfills the new time requirements, its approximately 145-day school year does not come close to meeting the number of days required under the new law.
“We were denied our request, which was devastating to us because we’ve been doing it for six years and it absolutely works,” Paul said. “To go back to the default schedule would be dysfunctional for us.”
Even though Paul and his administrative staff revised their waiver request so it would comply with the new law, it was too late, the board said. Hana’s school community council even wrote a letter begging the Legislature for an exemption.
Now that the Legislature is considering pushing back implementation of the new law until 2014, Paul hopes he can plead his case before the board one more time.
“I think everyone acknowledges the default DOE schedule doesn’t work,” he said. “It’s built around the teachers and not the kids. But when you get 100 percent of your teachers and 100 percent of your classified staff on board to change that schedule, that tells you something.”
He said that although his teachers would prefer to keep elementary school students in class all five days of the week, the Hana schedule is especially good for middle and high school students. Other schools, he said, may be able to come up with creative alternatives that meet their unique needs.
“Necessity is the mother of invention, so you can find out a way that works for you,” he said. “We absolutely love it.”
