Subject:   BHS SSC Draft about small schools.  

This is a draft document about the small schools (houses) plan for BHS
sent out by the BHS School Site Council.

BERKELEY HIGH SCHOOL
OPTIONS FOR HOUSES & SMALL SCHOOLS
DRAFT

INTRODUCTION
These are the preliminary recommendations of the School Site Council.
They are to be read in conjunction with the Draft Policy IV for Berkeley
Small Schools, December 12, 2001 (http://berkeleysmallschools.org).  The
Council recommends that the options be widely disseminated and discussed
in the relevant communities, and the Council will reconsider its
recommendations based on feedback from that process.

OVERVIEW
Berkeley High School has approximately 3000 students.  It has 4 existing
small schools of about 250 students each: Communications Arts and
Sciences (CAS), Common Ground, Computer Academy and Academic Choice.
These existing small schools should remain, and constitute part or all
of some of the houses.  These small schools have been successful, and
have been an inspiration for expanding the small schools concept.  It
would be counter-productive to abandon them.

BHS could initially be divided into small schools or  houses as follows:

A.  Five houses of approximately 600 each.  Two of these houses could
each contain 2 of the existing small schools.  The other three houses
could be themed or unthemed.

B.  Six houses of approximately 500 each, or seven houses of
approximately 430.  The 4 existing small schools could each be in a
different house, and would expand from their current sizes.  The other
houses could be themed or unthemed.  (500 students would mean about 120
at each grade level, which would be a convenient number divisible into 20-1 class sizes in 9th grade and 30-1 class sizes in later grades.)

ADMINISTRATION
Each house could be headed by an administrator and a head teacher (or 2
head teachers, if 2 small schools made up a house).  The head teachers
could be given reduced class loads to accommodate some administrative
duties.  There could be one or co-principals for the school as a whole.
(If the co-principals don't want to continue in this role, a recruiting
firm should be hired to search for a new principal.)  If necessary, the
number of existing administrative positions could be reduced to provide
the funds for reduced class loads for head teachers.  In that case, one
full-time administrator might have to serve 2 houses.

For example, if there were 5 houses, the 3 vice-principals and the 2
deans could each head one of the 5 houses, with the co-principals
heading the whole school. This would require additional funding for
reduced class loads for head teachers.  Alternatively, one of the 5
existing co- and vice-principals could head each school, with the 2
co-principals acting simultaneously as principals of the overall
school.  The 2 dean positions could be used for head teacher
administrative time.  With 6 or 7 houses, there could be 6 or 7
half-time administrator/half-time head teacher positions, plus 3 or 4
full-time administrators dividing their time between 2 houses each and
the overall school.  This would be the equivalent of the current 7
administrative positions.

NEW HOUSES
Houses that are not made up of an existing small school or schools could
be theme-based or unthemed.  A teacher or administrator who wants to
head a new small school or house  in the fall of 2003 could submit a
proposal to the small schools leadership team.  (In future years,
proposals could be submitted to the School Site Council.)  The proposal
would have to address the following issues: whether or not the schools
has a theme, size, method for selection of students and teachers, course
offerings, governance, staff development, curriculum (aligned with state
standards), head teacher, whether it constitutes a whole house, or
exists within a house with another small school, how it would attract
and accommodate a student  population that is diverse with respect to
race and skill level, structure for parent involvement, and how students
would be assessed, including all required district and state testing.
(The existing small schools each would also provide a plan to address
these issues.).  If no one comes forward to establish new small schools
or houses, the small schools leadership team will design unthemed
houses.  It may be desirable in any event to maintain one or more
unthemed houses.

Theme examples would be a science house and an arts house.  An arts
theme house would not mean that no other students could take arts
classes, or that arts house students could take no other electives, or
that arts teachers would not teach other students.  It would be an
affinity based group of teachers, some of whom would be arts teachers
and others of whom might be interested in including an arts emphasis in
English or history, while still teaching a standards-aligned
curriculum.  And it would be an affinity based group of students, who
might take more arts than other students.

CONTIGUOUS SPACE
Each house must have contiguous space.

For example, House 1 could have the H building except for the photo
room, House 2 could have the east half of the C building, House 3 could
have the west half, House 4 could have the G building, except for the
science, computer and art rooms. (If there were a science-theme house,
this would be good space for it).  If House 5 were an arts-theme house, it could have the classrooms in the A building and the new building, although of course others would use the arts classrooms also.  Many other configurations, such as certain floors within buildings,  are possible.

TEACHERS AND STAFF
All teachers, counselors, safety officers, support staff and custodians
could be members of one of the  houses.  Support staffers might retain
some tasks applicable to the whole school, such as records or master
scheduling, but would be identified with a house and perform some tasks
for that house.  All teachers would be members of one of the houses,
even if they teach classes offered to the whole school.

ADVISORIES
All students within each house would be divided into advisories of about
15 students and one advisor.  (what is the  ratio of all students to all
certificated personnel?) The advisors could include all certificated
personnel affiliated with that house (including administrators,
counselors, librarians, etc.) to make this grouping as small as
possible.  Each advisory would consist of students of just one grade
level.  Advisors would discuss issues relevant to that grade, and would
be trained by the counselors as to graduation, college and career
requirements.  The advisor would stay with these students from year to
year.  The advisor would meet with his/her advisees in a group on a
regular basis.  Options for these meetings could be as follows: a group
lunch once a week; a 15 minute advisory period after lunch each day; a
weekly shortened day to provide an hour for group meetings; skipping one
period one day each week, rotating which period is skipped.  (These
meetings would count as instructional minutes so they wouldn't require
the school day to be lengthened, but they would be additional
student-contact minutes for teachers so they would have to be
negotiated.)

COURSE OFFERINGS
Each house, or existing small school within a house, would offer at
least English and social studies cores to all of its students, taught by
its teachers.  Small schools or houses could choose to-or could be
required to-- offer more classes in-house to its students, such as one
or more of language, math, science, PE and electives, including AP
classes.  Students in small schools that provide a comprehensive program
could apply for exceptions, to take classes not offered by their small
school or house.  Students outside of a particular small school could
apply to take a class offered only by that school.  Some classes, other
than English and social studies, could be offered on an open basis, to
be taken by students from all houses that didn't offer them in-house.
All courses would have to be aligned to state standards. Schools could
set their own graduation requirements, within the parameters of state
and college admissions requirements.

BELL SCHEDULE
Classes for all houses could be on the same bell schedule.  Each house
will strive to reduce daily student-teacher contact to 80 to 1 through
block scheduling, team teaching, or alternate day scheduling, within
budgetary and staffing constraints.

ASSIGNMENT OF STUDENTS TO HOUSES
Students would apply for themed small schools and houses, after
receiving outreach efforts and orientation.  They would be selected by
the teachers, but only in such numbers as would maintain a racially,
socially, economically and ably diverse student body that in general
mirrors the student population of the district.  Assuming that there
were some unthemed houses, students who didn't apply to, or weren't
accepted to, themed houses, could be assigned randomly to unthemed
houses.  Students could apply to transfer to a different house at the
end of a school year.

ASSIGNMENT OF TEACHERS TO HOUSES
Teachers would apply to teach in themed small schools and houses.  They
would be selected by the head teacher, except that all schools would
have a fair proportion of new and senior teachers.  Teachers could ask,
or be asked, to transfer to another house.  Teachers could be assigned
randomly to unthemed houses. Or, teachers could apply to teach in a particular house based on the administrator and other teachers who teach there.

SPECIAL EDUCATION
Special education, at least non-mainstreamed students, would probably
have to be in one house.  (How many mainstreamed, non-mainstreamed and
partially mainstreamed special education students are there?)
Mainstreamed students could be in various houses.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS
This group of students could make up a house, in partnership with an
existing small school. For example, with a 5-house model, CAS
(approximately 250 students) and the English Language Learners
(approximately 300 students) could make up one house.  In this example,
ELL students who could take 1 or more mainstream classes would take CAS
classes.  (The popularity and success of  a program like the
CAS program would ensure that neither ELL students, nor students housed
with them, would feel that they were in a less desirable house.)  Or,
ELL students could make up a separate small school while not
mainstreamed.  As they became mainstreamed, they could transfer to any
of the other small schools or houses.

TEACHER PLANNING AND PREPARATION TIME
Teachers will need additional planning and professional development
time, so that they can meet both within their house and across houses
with colleagues who teach the same subject, like the current departments
and curriculum groups. The required number of instructional minutes
can't be reduced, so this additional time will have to be negotiated and
added.  (Can the bargaining unit be subdivided so that teachers in a
given house can negotiate their own arrangements?) Banking time and
shortened periods one day a week is one  way.  Another might be banking
time and skipping one period one day a week, alternating which period
is skipped.  Or a certain period of the day could be the common
preparation period for a given house, with all students in that house
taking a class outside the house at that time. (How is this done in
other schools?)

GOVERNANCE
Each house could be governed by a house council, consisting of the
administrator, the head teacher(s), and representatives of teachers,
staff, parents and students. A house consisting of 2 schools could have
1 or 2 of these bodies.  An overall School Site Council could consist of
the co-principals of the whole school, the other administrators, the
head teachers of each house or small school within a house, and staff,
student and parent representatives from each house or small school.
There could be a smaller executive committee of the Site Council that
meets more often.  Certain committees, such as  professional
development, school safety, and facilities would continue to exist
school-wide, perhaps with counterparts or subcommittees within the
houses.  These meetings could be held after school, during contract time
like the current Wednesday meeting days.  Any necessary additional time
would have to be negotiated.

There could also be a separate student government body, consisting of
student councils within each house and an overall student council.  This
group would provide the student representatives to the house and site
councils.  The teachers' and staff unions could serve the same function
for those bodies, perhaps with subgroups for each  house.  Each small
school or house will provide a structure for parent involvement.

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
A number of student activities could be school-wide: intramural and
league athletics, music, drama, newspaper, yearbook (separate sections
of these publications could be devoted to houses),  clubs, homecoming,
prom, pride week and graduation.  Houses or small schools could also
offer these and/or other activities in addition to the school-wide ones.


SUPPORT ACTIVITIES
Certain support activities could be school-wide: the BSEP site committee
(with representation from each house), the Berkeley High School
Development Group, the Athletic Fund.

ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS AND FACILITIES
Certain administrative functions and facilities could be school-wide,
such as the library, the master schedule and  maintenance.  The budget
could be done school-wide, at least initially, with certain
discretionary money allocated to each house.  Parts of the budget could
always be school-wide.

Derick D. Miller

510-848-4000 ddm@well.com
http://www.well.com/user/ddm/