Next year, Stillwater elementary schools will introduce new science specialists in hopes of shortening the required time science takes for teachers to prepare for it. Many of these changes are due to Stillwater having to cut $5 million in their budget. This change in science scheduling has many people wondering what changes can students expect and how does this benefit teachers while lightening the load.
On April 8, a school board meeting was held discussing problems regarding Stonebridge’s challenges. Stonebridge Principal Derek Berg stressed the importance of a new science structure due to his schools’ higher rankings in SPED learning, while lower in free lunch and multilingual learners.
“Stonebridge is below the district average in 3/4 categories free lunch, multilingual learners and students of color,” Berg said. Berg’s concerns over his school’s performance in recent MCA tests fuel his drive for changes within elementary schools.
The recommended time students spend on learning literacy is 120 minutes. As of today, elementary students receive a low 80 minutes of learning, mostly due to the time science takes teachers to prepare. Adding new science teachers solely teaching science will significantly improve the learning for students while assisting teachers in their time management.
Science takes the most prep time out of a teachers schedule. This is due to the lengthy hands-on experiments that teachers must prefect. When new science teachers are implemented into the schools system many teachers will have a lightened load to focus on math or literacy.
“We need 120 minutes for literacy instruction daily. Any curriculum we looked at required that much. Currently, we have 80 minutes,” Afton Lakeland Principal Gina Doe explained at the Stillwater board meeting.
Hiring new employees can take time and be a difficult process – luckily, Stillwater Schools have already made decisions on new teachers. A few new science specialists will be Aaron Danielson (Brookview), Scott Sirek (Rutherford) and Sonja Rose (Stonebridge). These teachers are set on providing the best experience for their students. Their drive pushed by their “Curious about the world” mindset reinforces their commitment to educate students to the best of their ability. There will be a new science specialists at each elementary school.
“Some of the greatest growth happens when we push ourselves to take on complex challenges and learn from the journey,” Sirek said.
With the implementation of new science specialists into elementary schools, teachers hope to expand the time spent on literacy. While this might result in a difficult change for many in 2025 in the long term, this should offer a beneficial change to students and teachers alike.
