The Pleasanton school board heard a report on the 2015 homework survey results Tuesday night, the last meeting of the 2014-15 school year.
The homework survey — given online to students, teachers and parents/guardians — was conducted from Feb. 6 through March 3.
According to staff reports, the survey findings focus on the amount of time spent on homework according to what students, staff and parents reported.
The Homework Board Policy & Regulations 6154 — adopted on June 17, 2014 — states the amount of homework assigned to students should be different in elementary, middle and high school. In addition, the grade-level guidelines of the policy are intended to apply to the needs of all students, but time allocations are targets toward the average student.
Staff reports said the survey received: 845 responses out of 6,374 elementary students, 1,674 responses out of 8,272 secondary students, 322 responses out of 644 teachers, and 1,763 responses from parents/guardians.
The general findings from elementary students show that the amount of time they spend per night on homework is within the policy guidelines, which is 10-20 minutes for K-1st, 20-30 minutes for 2nd-3rd and 40-50 minutes for 4th-5th.
The survey report also shows that K-3 teachers reported that the amount of time they are assigning per night on homework is within the policy guidelines, while 4th-5th grade teachers are assigning slightly less than policy guidelines.
In addition, K-2 parents reported the amount of time spent on homework is within the policy guidelines, whereas 3rd-5th parents report an amount slightly above policy guidelines.
At the secondary level, middle school parents and students reported working slightly above the average amount of time per night, no more than 15 minutes per subject, for homework. Middle school teachers report that the amount of time they are assigning per night is slightly over policy guidelines.
In the high schools, parents and students reported working above the average amount of time, no more than 20 minutes per subject, per night on homework. Teachers reported assigning the amount within policy guidelines.
According to staff, the next steps include sharing the data with site administrators and requesting them to work collaboratively with their staff on fully implementing the homework policy.
In addition, staff is set to look at exploring possible facilitation of focus groups to further discuss the homework policy with students, parents/guardians and certificated and classified staff.
Trustee Joan Laursen noted at the end of the discussion that Advanced Placement classes are not covered by the homework policy and she asked staff to find a way to eliminate any survey results that included time spent on AP class homework.
Trustee Mark Miller suggested staff look at consequences for teachers who continuously assign more than the amount specified in the homework policy.
Suggestions from board president Valerie Arkin included allowing students to do homework during class, not having homework graded and coordinating with other teachers when projects and tests will occur.
In other business:
* Three parents addressed the board about their support for Foothill High principal Jason Krolikowski and his decision to hire Dale Hazen as the head wrestling coach, which was included as a consent agenda item Tuesday night.
“Make sure you support the leaders you hire,” said parent Herb Ritter.
Following community comment, the board unanimously approved the personnel document.
Hazen will be succeeding Bennie Lafever, who has coached the team the past eight seasons.
The reason for Lafever’s departure is unclear. Krolikowski said in an interview that he could not discuss why Lafever is no longer with the school, citing personnel rules.
* School board members unanimously approved the 2015-16 Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) draft, which is a required action under the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF).
According to staff reports, PUSD’s LCAP is aligned with state and district priorities to ensure that supplemental funds provided to the school district to support targeted students are expended in a manner to facilitate their academic success.
Targeted students include socio-economically disadvantaged, English learners and foster/kinship youth.
Some of the new areas for supplemental funding included a Mandarin-speaking district parent liaison, College & Career Readiness Action Plan incentives, a Spanish-speaking social worker, internet-connected Chromebooks, reading/English-language support paraprofessionals for K-5.
* Trustees unanimously approved the adoption of the FY 2015-16 budget, which projects $139.1 million in general fund revenue and calls for $131 million in general fund expenditures.
