Those of us in education experience a new beginning every year. While people in business or other professions just keep plugging along, educators have a school year that has a very distinct beginning and ending. We get a fresh start every August.
This year we experienced one of the greatest changes in the school district's history: "The Transition." We shifted our fifth-graders from elementary school up to middle school. The seventh-graders moved from middle school to junior high, and the ninth-graders moved from junior high up to high school. From a logistical standpoint, it had all the makings of a nightmare.
We had to move all the books and materials for about 130 teachers. Grade-level configurations needed to be adjusted, and many teachers had to be reassigned classrooms, not just in their new school but also in their current school. Then, just to make matters more challenging, you add the shift of ninth-graders up to the high school, add the challenge of opening the final 25 percent of the new high school building, and throw in for good measure the new 10th-graders who were also new to the high school because they were ninth-graders last year in the junior highs. This meant that 50 percent of all high school students would be brand new to the high school.
Throughout the 2014-15 school year I heard teachers and parents alike telling me what a disaster this "transition" would be. I began to think this was akin to a coming Armageddon. What really happened? School has opened as smoothly as I could have dreamed. In fact, it may have been one of the smoothest openings I've seen in my 45 years in public education.
Why wasn't there the feared disaster? The answer is simple. Anything can be dealt with when you have good, dedicated people working together to make positive things happen.
Kim Garrett, associate superintendent for secondary education, led a committee of teachers and principals who examined every scenario and defined everything that could go wrong. They made plans to ensure a smooth "transition," and their efforts were highly successful.
Special thanks must go to the administrative and counseling staff at the high school, who worked long hours to make sure the student schedules were ready to go on day one. A high school master schedule is extremely complex. Fayetteville High School has almost 2,500 students. Each student has seven periods a day, plus a seminar class. Overall, there are 794 class periods taught at FHS, including highly specialized classes designed for only 25 to 30 of the 2,500 students. Even the most sophisticated computer program can't make every combination work perfectly in every instance. This is where the human element comes in. So, how did it go at FHS?
On the first full day of classes with all four grade levels attending, I walked the campus and was immediately concerned; I didn't see any students! I didn't see them because they were all in their classes working. As I passed by the counselors' offices there were no students waiting to "fix" their schedules.
The staff and faculty in the Fayetteville Public Schools all deserve a big pat on the back. Great job, everyone! The "transition" was a huge success.
Paul Hewitt is superintendent of Fayetteville Public Schools.
NAN Our Town on 08/27/2015