REMARKS
Council member raises concerns about Summer Rising program structure and teacher workload
1:03:43
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132 sec
Council Member Althea V. Stevens expresses concerns about the Summer Rising program structure, particularly regarding teacher workload and the effectiveness of the current model for students who need additional support.
- Questions the feasibility of teachers managing diverse student needs with only two days of preparation
- Highlights the challenge of balancing mandated and non-mandated students in the same classroom
- Suggests that the current model may not provide enough individualized attention for struggling students
- Calls for a reevaluation of the program's goals and structure, especially given the change in available resources since its inception during COVID-19
Althea V. Stevens
1:03:43
So no one thinks it's a little crazy that the teachers have 2 days of PD, and then they have students who are mandated to be there, and then students that they didn't have to who are not mandated to be there, and obviously probably don't need that.
1:03:59
That additional courtroom might want other like, accelerations.
1:04:02
Like like, I think, like, in theory, this sounds like it makes sense, but, like, this is part of the challenge where young people are, like, onboard.
1:04:09
I don't wanna be here because the teacher is juggling all of these things.
1:04:14
And granted, they do it all year.
1:04:15
Right?
1:04:15
Because that's part of their work.
1:04:16
Right?
1:04:17
But now we've, like, added 2 more months of this.
1:04:19
Like, so I, like, I I want us to just kinda think about that.
1:04:22
Like, what does that really look like?
1:04:24
And does that, like, make sense?
1:04:25
And this is is this the best stress of resources.
1:04:28
Right?
1:04:28
We're thinking about young people who probably who used and let's be clear, servers school.
1:04:32
When they had summer school, they were in there.
1:04:35
It was smaller groups.
1:04:36
They were able to get additional attention, able to get more support.
1:04:39
And now it's literally just a bigger classroom all year long when they could have gotten some additional support and prepared them better.
1:04:46
For the school year.
1:04:47
And so, like, I'm just that's why for me, it's it's it's a little mind boggling to wrap my heads around.
Danielle Domingo
1:04:53
So so I think it's it's twofold.
1:04:55
Some of and
Althea V. Stevens
1:04:56
and I've been out here.
1:04:58
There's some teacher doing some great work and all the things, but that's not what so I don't want you guys to explain in a way, like, oh, and I know teachers is doing their their thing is high I I ran him early, but whatever.
1:05:08
But I just want us to also think about, does this make sense as far as even thinking about?
1:05:12
These young people who need that additional support.
1:05:14
And we'll be able to get additional attention from a teacher for 2 months and really help them excel for the next school year.
1:05:19
Is it preparing them the way they should be prepared?
1:05:22
Which was my question even was gonna say, like, what are the academic what are the goals around this program?
1:05:27
Because it started out as a reaction from COVID and saying these kids have been out of school for all this time.
1:05:32
Let's do this.
1:05:33
And so have we sat down and said, okay.
1:05:35
Let's look at this and does this make the most sense for this the lack of resources we have.
1:05:42
Right?
1:05:42
Because we had federal money before, we had all these things, does this make the most sense for us to to continue with this model this way?
1:05:51
So, like, what are the academicals that we're looking at, and what are we really trying to achieve?
