By JUDY SHERARD

jsherard@dailynews.net

A Hays High School committee of teachers and administrators has developed a draft of next year's schedule to meet the negotiated requirements.

HHS teachers teach five classes, but the contract agreed to last summer between the board of education and the Hays-NEA bargaining unit requires HHS teachers to teach six classes for the 2012-13 school year.

Members of the USD 489 district's bargaining team said at the time, the change would help with budget issues concerning long-term planning, restructuring and flexibility, as well as equitable class size and class load.

It will add to the flexibility in the movement of teachers to other grade levels if their certification allows, and district needs warrant it.

Superintendent Will Roth said the proposed schedule meets the requirement set out in the negotiations.

"The only stipulation was that they teach six (classes) instead of five," he said.

The committee, chaired by Kathy Wagoner, included teachers Kelly Ackerman, Lynn Zimmerman and James Mages, and Principal Mike Hester and Assistant Principals Marty Straub and Tom Albers.

"At the first meeting, we brainstormed what we like about our block schedule," Wagoner said. "What it is we don't want to lose."

After several meetings, committee members got feedback from teachers and addressed concerns.

A number of teachers, including Wagoner, are passionate about the block schedule.

"I can do a variety of activities and tie them together. You can tie the vocabulary to the literature and to the writing," she said.

Students like it because they don't have to prepare for seven classes every day. However, it does limit the number of elective classes students can take.

Block classes are 90 minutes long. Teachers teach five classes, three one day and two the next, with a 90-minute planning period each day. There's also a 90-minute seminar every other day during which students can get extra help from teachers.

"We tutor during the seminar period," Wagoner said.

Students have seven minutes to pass between classes.

The proposed 2012-13 school year schedule will have 86-minute classes. Teachers will teach three classes each day and have one 86-minute planning period.

"Instead of seminar every other day, we will have a seminar every day that lasts 40 minutes," Wagoner said.

The seminar or Opportunity to Learn (OTL) is at the same time, 11:10 to 11:55 a.m., every day.

Seminar actually will be designated for Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

"Tuesday and Thursday, we'll have an academy lesson during this same period for 15 minutes, then have 25 minutes they can pass to teachers and get help," Wagoner said.

"It preserved the good parts of the block schedule," Roth said.

Passing time from one class to the next will be five minutes next year.

A longer passing time was needed when enrollment was 1,100 students and hallway traffic moved slower, Wagoner said.

However with approximately 800 students now, they should be able to get to class in five minutes, she said.

"To get 86 minutes of block time, the teachers had to give up 14 minutes of that preparatory time," Wagoner said. "We traded contract time for contact time."

Teachers this year are required to be at the school 30 minutes before school starts and 15 minutes after school.

Most teachers stay longer than 15 minutes after school, she said.

Wagoner said the additional class will add prep time for some teachers who might add a new class to their teaching load, but others will just add more students.

The proposed schedule likely will be tweaked before it becomes part of the negotiations package and put to a vote by the board of education and teachers.

"We're still getting feedback from teachers. It's a product in process," Wagoner said.