the upcoming year or semester. Every teacher is entitled to at least some
of his requests.
The commentary that follows is based on a high school program. The
strategies suggested can be adjusted and applied to middle school. Some
are also applicable to elementary schools, but with significant extrapola-
tion to suit the different program needs at this grade level.
School leaders find that different aspects of the program are important
to different teachers. Some only care about the time schedule, early or
late. Frequently, a request for an early or late schedule revolves around
child care issues (pick up and drop off) and/or traffic conditions.
Some only care about the room they are assigned. They don’t care what
they teach as long as they teach it in a certain room, often a room they
have decorated and use for material storage, or that has some other advan-
tage, real or imagined, such as hours of direct sunlight. And for others, all
that matters are the classes they are assigned.
Small schools with fewer course options are just as difficult to program
as larger schools with multiple options. It is rare than any teacher can have
every request met. Often, there are not enough rooms for every teacher to
have his or her own, so rooms must be shared and some teachers will work
in more than one room. There are usually more requests for early session
than there are early session programs. There are many requests for the few
honors classes that exist. How does the school leader juggle the requests
from teachers given the program realities and limitations?
First, create a transparent program preference form, such as the one
reproduced in figure 7.1.
Some explanations are needed. The “rotation” list alluded to in num-
ber 1 of figure 7.1 refers to a list of teachers who would be assigned to a
time schedule they did not request. If the school has more than one time
schedule, this will be the least popular one. The school keeps a list of staff
by their seniority within each department or grade level, with the least
senior teacher first and the most senior last. If someone is needed for the
less popular schedule, it goes to the teacher at the top of the list; however,
after his stint, he then moves to the bottom of the list. As per many teacher
contracts, this illustrates the principle of program rotation.
Room assignment is usually not covered by contact, so this is an area
of flexibility for supervisors. Of course, every effort is made to minimize
the number of rooms assigned to a teacher (if possible, no more than two).
82 Chapter 7