Mar. 1, 2020 1:35p
(WGTD)---Kenosha Unified teachers are putting pressure on the school board to increase prep time.
About a half-dozen high school teachers voiced their concerns at last week’s school board meeting.
The amount of allotted prep time has decreased steadily as budgets over the years have gotten tighter. At the high school level, teachers are assigned a single period for prep, which often times is filled with anything but the intended lesson planning.
Brian Chike is a former middle school dean who now teaches full-time at Bradford. “For years this schedule has looked good on the surface and it has allowed this district to save a lot of money by making high school classroom teachers teach six classes a day,” he said. “But look below the surface and you’ll see burned out staff that’s frantically running around on a daily basis trying to do everything well but doing nothing well because we don’t have the time.”
John Ruffolo is Bradford High School’s athletic director. He also coaches softball and teaches English. Over the years, he’s noticed a decline in the number of teachers that coach on the side. Ruffolo says teacher/coaches are in a position to build stronger bonds with students, many of whom are in need of extra attention.
Coaching positions that aren’t filled by teachers are taken by community members.
Increasing prep time is all about money. The district says moving to fewer but longer periods, or increasing prep time hours from one to two, would cost between $3.5 million and $4.7 million annually. And that would cover just teachers at the high school level.
The district's budget, with all expenditures thrown in, is about $400 million.
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