Master Schedule Narrative 1

Middle School Master Schedule Narrative

The Principalship EDAD 6314 01

Jung Hyun An and Veronica M. Spikes

Dallas Baptist University

April 18, 2017

Master Schedule Narrative 2

Creating the Master Schedule

In our attempt to create a Master Schedule for an Intermediate School we discovered

many steps are required in order to build a schedule where all students are served adequately.

Using an Excel spreadsheet first we preplanned the number of teachers needed, how many

sections, students for each core subject and students per electives. Therefore, the Master

Schedule is a schedule for the entire school to function and without proper planning and

preparation, the Master Schedule may not function as intended by school administration.

The Planning

First, we had to calculate teacher ratio for 5th and 6th grades. Student ratios of 24:1; 26:1;

and 28:1 were determined as adequate teacher to student classroom ratios in the core academic

classroom. Based on these numbers, the number of academic teams were established as 5 teams

for 5th grade and 4 teams for 6th grades. 1 English As Second Language (ESL) and 16 content, 3

teachers for electives, resulting in 20 teachers, teaching 5 th grade students.12 teachers for content

only and 4 teachers teaching content and electives for 6 th graders have been determined by the

student ratio numbers. The Title 1 teacher is on campus frequently, and the Title 1 teacher has the

liberty to fill in classrooms as needed. Planning Periods for each academic team varies based on

the content area. The content areas plan together during the planning period. In addition, adding

dual courses (3) for 5th and (1) for 6th and ESL courses added to scheduling planning periods

which served content areas for additional staff members.

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Staff Allotments

Staffing at the Intermediate level required much planning and referring to the student

teacher ratio model provided on the Excel Spreadsheet. The model reveals 5th and 6th grade both

needed PAP courses offered in the core subject areas. The core subject area need for PAP classes

listed as follows suggests: 6 PAP Math and Science for 5 th grade, 5 PAP English and Social

Studies for 5th grade, 6 PAP Math and Science for 6 th grade, and 5 PAP English and Social

Studies for 6th grade. The determinant for ESL for 5th and 6th grade indicated the need for 1 ESL

for 5th grade and 2 ESL for 6th grade. The ESL teacher is utilized in 3 classes, one 5 th grade class

and two 6th grade classes. In addition, the ESL teacher teaches a 5 th grade English class. The

regular education courses include students in Resource Math and English Language Arts. The

number of regular core subject courses needed for 5 th grade are 9 classes for Math and Science,

10 Social Studies, and 9 English Language Arts classes. According to the student numbers the

required number of classes for 6th grade is as follows, 8 Math and Science, 9 Social Studies, and

7 English Language Arts.

Specialized Areas

Teachers are needed in the special education area. The need included as FALS and

Success Unit on the campus. As a team it was determined that each Special Education teacher

will be responsible for one unit each thus one teacher teaches FALS unit and 1 teacher teaches

Success unit. Planning periods for Inclusion teacher are consistent with the core content grade

level teams. An extra planning time is built in for the Inclusion teachers reserved for planning,

ARD meetings, ARD meeting preparation, or FALS and Success classroom coverage and

support. Paraprofessionals are assumed as built into the school numbers therefore a sufficient
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number of Paraprofessionals are employed and are accounted for in each of the required Special

Education settings. The Master Schedule reflects that 12 classes in resource education are

needed. The 12 classes include four resource English Language Arts, three resource Math for 5 th

grade, three resource English Language Arts, and two resource Math for 6 th grade. Each resource

classroom will teach a maximum of five students per class. Resource teachers maintain three

class periods to teach during the school day.

Electives

With the need for more core classes teachers to reduce class sizes, P.E teachers, Science

Exploratory Teachers and Tech teachers also teach core subjects. In sum P.E. teachers also teach

English or a Social Studies, Tech teachers also teaches math and Science exploratory teachers

also teaches Science assuming that the teachers have the right credentials. In order to allow these

teaches to plan with the content area teachers their planning periods align with the respective

content area planning period. One the other hand the art, band, and music teachers planning

period do not align with any of the core content are teachers since they are only teaching their

own subject. In addition, by doing so the students in the academic team with no content class are

allotted to take elective classes. In doing so the maximum number of students in the core content

area are kept below 29 except for 6th grade dual program where there are 30 students.

Consequently, hiring teachers for the next school year is considered on upcoming school

vacancies and certification requirements. The vacancies will be filled based on the position

vacated by previous position holder.