Geneva D-304 OKs pilot plan to help middle schoolers get organized

GENEVA – Geneva Middle School South will begin a pilot program this fall to give its students an additional eight minutes at the end of every school day to get organized.

The additional minutes will come from taking one minute off of each of their classes during the day, Superintendent Kent Mutchler said.

“It was a real frustration that COVID made worse, the way the kids are not as well organized as they should be,” Mutchler said. “It was a frustration for staff at Geneva Middle School South that a lot of kids did not have their homework done. It was frustrating for teachers if the kids don’t come to class with homework done and not have their pencils and they’re spending time helping them with that.”

Geneva Middle School South Principal Terry Bleau and his staff came up with the idea of taking just one minute from the other classes to give students eight extra minutes during their eighth period to get organized, Mutchler said.

“During that eight minutes, they would work on those skills that we use throughout life – scheduling and having a calendar,” Mutchler said. “Having the teacher check with them to see that their homework is done and going home with the right assignments and talking to them about time management.”

The goal is to help the students learn to build a calendar, learn to be on time and to have their work ready – skills that will only help them in life and in their future careers, he said.

“If you do things enough, it becomes a habit,” Mutchler said.

The Geneva District 304 school board approved a memorandum of understanding with the Geneva Education Association last week about the program because it would take some preparation time away from teachers.

Mutchler said there had to be a trade-off such as an earlier release time and less bus duty to compensate.

GEA President Kevin Gannon said the teachers will be working on how they will teach these organizational and planning skills to students during the remainder of summer so the program will be ready when school starts Aug. 17.

“The buzzword is ‘executive functioning skills,’” Gannon said.

After COVID and a hybrid school year, Gannon said teachers noticed middle school students were struggling with organization.

“They always did, but it was getting more and more pronounced,” Gannon said. “It’s a subtle change, taking one minute of each period and putting it at the end of the day.”

The change required a memorandum of understanding between the school board and the teacher’s union because they are going to be in negotiations during the school year, he said.

“If we want to make it permanent, it can happen there or we can keep it flexible and just roll the memorandum of understanding over,” Gannon said. “We can still be working the bugs out and figure out what is needed and decide do we need the full eight minutes the following year.”

Once all the sixth graders have had the training, it may not be needed going forward for them when they’re seventh and eighth graders, Gannon said.

“It’s a great idea, a much-needed idea, a plan everybody agrees with,” Gannon said. “We just needed to codify it because it is a change in the working conditions.”

The school board approved a second memorandum of understanding with the GEA, codifying that the district offers 60 days of Family Medical Leave for 12 months after childbirth or an adoption for the mother or the father.

The memorandum was necessary because the district gives 60 days while the state sets parenting leave at 30 days, Mutchler said.

Teachers get 10 sick days a year and these can be accumulated and used during family leave, Mutchler said.

“Because we exceed what the state was saying, we said we need to have a memorandum of understanding,” Mutchler said.

Gannon said the state action was the result of litigation when a teacher wanted to split her family leave time at the end of one school year and the beginning of another and that district said no.

The result was a decision favoring the district, so the legislature stepped in, Gannon said.

“The legislation set the minimum at 30 days, but the district said we stay with 60 (days) and the GEA was in full agreement that this is the way to go.”

The bottom line is, the district has always allowed the use of 60 days for family leave for childbirth or adoption, Gannon said.

“We are grateful the district decided to continue that proactively,” Gannon said. “It’s good for families, good for teachers bringing kids home from an adoption or from childbirth. … And it can be split up at the end of one year or the beginning of another school year.”