Transition to flexible scheduling

["Patricia B. Heydweiller" <pbheydwe@MAILBOX.SYR.EDU>]

   Our district library supervisor has asked me to see if LM-Netters
whose schools have made the transition from traditional scheduling to
flexible scheduling could give us some ideas on how their principals
dealt with any resulting dissatisfaction on the part of teachers who may
have lost their planning time/break.  We have a well-developed board
approved plan for moving to flexible scheduling, but it is being left
to the individual schools to develop their own arrangements.  Therefore,
since it is not coming down from above, there's a lot of foot-dragging
going on.  We have some schools where the teacher stays with the class,
some where there is partial flex time, one or two where a magnet teacher
provides the "break" so the library is free to be what it ought to be,
and a few principals who said "this is the way it will be."  But, we have
other principals who have said they would rather have one unhappy library
media specialist than twenty-five teachers up-in-arms.
    We would like to know how other schools deal with teacher planning
times.  Teachers do need planning time--we would like to see them
have it, too.  (Although I must say that those who would complain the most are
the ones who are also out the door before the last bus pulls away.)  Even
my most cooperative and creative teachers are unwilling to give up their
scheduled 30 "free" minutes one day a week, and almost everyone looks at
me blankly when I point out the virtues of a flexible schedule.
   Please--If you have teacher "breaks", how are they scheduled?  Are
they daily?  Who covers them?  If you've successfully changed to flex
time, are your teachers happy with it?  Was your principal a key to a
successful change?  Is anyone in a school where the change was not
successful?
  Respond to me personally, please.  I know we've talked a lot on here
about the need for flexible scheduling, and we all know what WE want, but
now that we're down to the nitty-gritty, it's HARD to make that change
smoothly.
             Thanks for any help.  My supervisor has been hearing all
about the wonders of the Internet and LM-NET (kudos to Mike E. and Peter
M. at the SU Spring Media Conference here...)

Pat Heydweiller         pbheydwe@mailbox.syr.edu
Roberts Elementary School     Syracuse, New York