District not swayed by Davis shift

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT-MESA -- School and district officials are unmoved by reports

that Gov. Gray Davis is willing to scale back his controversial plan to

extend the middle school year.

Shortening the plan’s duration from six weeks, as originally proposed,

to four weeks does not make adopting the voluntary program more

attractive in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, said Mike Fine

assistant superintendent of business services.

When Gov. Gray Davis released the state budget proposal for 2001-2002

it included an ambitious plan to extend middle school students’ school

year by 30 days in an effort to give a boost to low test scores.

The $1.45-billion, three-year proposal would offer school districts a

monetary incentive for voluntarily adding the 30 days to the school year

for seventh- and eighth-grade students.

It would cost $100 million in the upcoming year.

Now Davis is considering amending that initiative by slicing off 10

days, making 15 of the remaining 20 a school year extension, and letting

schools tack time on to the end of each school day to account for the

remaining five days.

While district officials have agreed all along that more school days

could potentially be a good, they would like flexibility in how all 20

days are used.

“Going from six weeks to four doesn’t change things logistically,”

Fine said. “Our interest was in flexibility to change to a longer

[school] day or special sessions. I think that would be viewed as more

cost effective than a longer year.”

Middle school administrators agreed that lengthening the school day

would be preferable to lengthening the school year.

“I would prefer to see the day lengthened than the year,” said Mike

McGuire, principal of Ensign Intermediate School, where he taught history

for 20 years. “I think teachers need the rest when you dig in to what a

teacher experiences in those nine months. They need that time to rest and

to put together curriculum and be more innovative. We need that time to

come up with innovative curriculum for the next year.”

In fact, the extension of the school day is a concept they are already

working on at Ensign.

“We’re talking about adding a ninth period, which would be a more

structured after school tutorial,” McGuire said. “So we’re headed in that

direction anyway. But it doesn’t effect every student nor does every

student need that kind of structured tutorial.”

That across the board nature of the initiative was a concern of Supt.

Robert Barbot’s from the start. While some students would benefit from

additional time, he said, it may not be the best thing for all students.

Barbot’s other concern with the additional class time is whether or

not it be well spent.