To:          Keene High School Faculty

From:      Bill Gurney

Date:        December 21, 2011

RE:          Modification of Block Scheduling

Dear Faculty:

Last evening, Alan Chmiel and his administrative staff presented the results of their work on modifying the schedule for the 2012 – 2013 school year.

Our administrative team recommended to the Keene Board of Education that we are not ready to modify the schedule for next year. Their recommendation was based upon the results of running several preliminary schedules with limited success.

The Keene Board of Education accepted their recommendation, and a motion was passed to delay implementation until the fall of 2013. The motion also called upon the administration to present monthly updates on their planning process and milestones reached in developing the  modified schedule.

Change is never easy for an organization. The Board’s goal of offering a more flexible schedule for our students remains and will continue to drive our efforts. This is a worthy goal that has the potential to unite us all in an initiative to better serve students’ needs and learning styles.

Our administrators will not be able to make this cultural change on their own. In the weeks ahead, we will be calling upon faculty, parents and students to engage positively in this initiative. We will be turning our attention to the 2013 – 2014 schedule when school resumes in January. We will have a modified schedule completed by the end of the school year with some funds available for curriculum planning over the summer break for courses changing formats.

Patrick Lencioni wrote in the Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable (2002) that the absence of trust and fear of conflict are the primary factors contributing to cultural dysfunction. Modification of the schedule has certainly led to more than our share of conflict and I hope we will be able to work together on this goal with a spirit of trust. Our students deserve nothing less.