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Preparation
for the
Below is some information collected and shared by faculty during the
week of May 5-9, 2008. Following these items are
The survey of faculty on our recommended dates
for the NWACC Spring Break is available and will be open for votes
until Wednesday, May 14, 2008. Vote at
http://www.surveymethods.com/EndUser.aspx?7F5B372E7838292A
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In Spring 2008, 407 students were dually enrolled at
NWACC and U of Arkansas
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The dually-enrolled students constitute 6.15% of
Spring 2008 NWACC students (6,624 students as reported in a
January 30, 2008 NWACC press release about 11th day
demographic data for Spring 2008).
·
The
"Spring 2008
Student Count" from those cities directly affected by Spring
Break 2009 dates, shows that Group 1 students—those in districts
having Spring Break March 23-27, 2009—number 4,632. Of those, 609
students report that they have children who are dependents.
·
The
"Spring 2008
Student Count" shows that Group 2 students--those in districts having Spring Break
·
The college
Fiscal Year 2008 Budget Presentation Powerpoint shows that the
millage tax collected from Bentonville and Rogers homeowners
(in-district) contributed 14% of the NWACC unrestricted operating
revenue budget for fiscal year 2008 (Powerpoint Slide 15). The total millage
tax paid to NWACC was $5.2 million (Powerpoint Slide 12). · University of Arkansas's 2009 Spring Break will be held March 16-20, 2009.
· John Brown University’s 2009 Spring Break will be held March 23-27, 2009.
· A February 2008 memo from Arkansas Department of Education states that public schools should not schedule their 2009 Spring Breaks during the week following a Benchmark exam. The 11th Grade Literacy exam is scheduled for March 10-11, 2009, a Tuesday and Wednesday. The purpose of the policy is to allow for makeup exams to be taken and for shipping to be expedited.
· A May 7, 2008 email from the NWACC Faculty Senate President to the Arkansas Department of Education notes that the Fayetteville and Lincoln School Districts are having their Spring Breaks during March 16-20, 2009, when the University of Arkansas has its Spring Break. In the email, the question asked is whether those school districts have an ADE waiver to allow them to follow the U of Arkansas calendar. Response to the email follows:
· " ADE has granted no waivers of which I am aware. School districts set their own calendars, test according to the schedule established by ADE, provide makeup testing for students who miss, and ship according to the dates scheduled by ADE. It is true that school districts establish different spring break dates across the state, while remaining in compliance with the requirements I have described. Sometimes they do not have any students needing makeup testing or they have pre-arranged for trained, licensed staff members to be on hand in district during spring break to do make up testing if needed and to ship materials on the ADE-required dates. I can assure you that all of the school districts in our state clearly understand these requirements, and know that they must accommodate makeups and shipping as required by the calendar ADE establishes. I hope this may have provided clarification for you. Gayle"
Dr. Gayle Potter, Associate Director Curriculum, Assessment, and Research 4 Capitol Mall, Room 106-A Little Rock, AR 72201 (501) 682-4558 gayle.potter@arkansas.gov · After two days of discussion that began on May 5th, the Faculty Senate sent a summary written by Edrene McKay to all faculty with the collected information about Compressed Interactive Video classes which occur at local high schools and other potential conflicts with any of the proposed Spring Break dates. That summary follows:
Subject: SPRING BREAK 2009 FEEDBACK
Each year at this time we make a decision on the next year’s spring break. Here are some things to consider:
·
A number of schools in northwest Arkansas have selected one of these
dates:
o
March 23-27, 2009: Rogers, Springdale, Bentonville, Huntsville,
Gravette, Siloam Springs, Gentry, Prairie Grove, Pea Ridge
·
Although it is too soon to know actual numbers, we have students in
our Compressed Interactive Video (CIV) classes from Lincoln high
school (in the earlier category) and Siloam Springs, Gentry, and
Prairie Grove high schools (in the later category). The later date
conforms to the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) testing
schedule. The earlier one does not.
(See
message from Clint Brooks, above)
·
Although students in our CIV classes are required to follow NWACC’s
schedule, they might need to attend classes in Bentonville during
their spring break if the districts do not provide the necessary
equipment and facilitation.
·
Our faculty, staff, and students have children in schools in both
categories, so any date we select will inconvenience someone. · Some have recommended that, as long as such conflicts between the districts arise, NWACC should consider alternating the dates, i.e., went with U of A and Fayetteville in 2007, should now go with Benton County districts. Next time there is a conflict, go with UA & Fayetteville, and so on.
·
The Expanded Cabinet is discussing selecting the March 23-27 date to
serve Benton County taxpayers. · It is important to try to identify other possible conflicts before making a final decision.
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Clint Brooks, NWACC Director of Distance Learning,
provided information about
I don't have numbers in front of me but I know we have the following [CIV] classes planned for Spring 2009 and I expect all of them to have at least a few students on campus at NWACC:
English Composition II - NWACC, Prairie Grove, and Siloam Springs US History II (since 1877) - NWACC and Gentry College Algebra - NWACC and Lincoln Western Civ II (since 1650) - NWACC and Lincoln (and possibly/doubtful Gentry) Finite Math - NWACC and Gentry
Thanks,
Clint
Clint Brooks, M.Ed.
Faculty Comments
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It will be a tremendous hardship for me if you do NOT follow the Fayetteville/UofA schedule. I do not understand why all the area schools cannot get together on this.
I like the idea of alternating spring break with U of A and the other districts. Sounds fair.
It looks like the masses are taking spring break together. I understand that Fay and the U of A are doing it together but all of the others are not the same week. We have a high number of students who are not U of A or Fay students. I vote to go with Bentonville, Rogers etc. Also, it puts our faculty and support staff at a disadvantage as their children will be out of school. The people working for NWACC would be a higher population of Benton county residents. Many of our staff have to take vacation time if we go with the U of A week. Then we have no support staff.
I would prefer the following: Rogers, Springdale, and Bentonville’s spring break is March 23-27 (also, Huntsville, Gravette, and Siloam Springs). Because i have children in the Bentonville school district and i would get to take the break with them :c)
I would prefer the March 23-27 dates to coincide with the Rogers School District's spring break.
Since the school districts closest to the
college are going with the later day, I think that should be the
determining factor and go with the later week. I would rather follow the Rogers School District. Personally, I don’t care. However, we have several single parents in the program and I remember what a burden it was for them when we didn’t.
Good luck on a no-win situation! We really need to stick with the U of A. Parents should complain to their kid's school districts that they too should stick with the U of A.
This may seem like a simplified view, however we are in the Benton county school district and it seems to me that the logical thing to do would be to follow their lead. I understand that we serve many areas in Northwest Arkansas, but our primary home base is Benton County. If this is not possible it would be most appropriate to rotate between the two dates as previously expressed.
I think we should have it the same as the
UofA. We have so many students that attend both schools. I think
we would see very few students actually attend during the week of
the UofA's spring break; thus, being a week of wasted instruction. I would vote for the U of A timing for spring break.
I appreciate all the work those discussing the issue did for the rest of us.
The above personal selfishness aside, I had a large number of students who were parents that could only attend class when their elementary-age children were in school. I made sure there were no major grades during the week Bentonville was off. My parent-students tend to be from Bentonville and Rogers. If we have to choose what part of “community” is the most important to our mission as a community college, I think the needs of our in-district students shouldn’t be shoved aside. Shouldn’t the students who live in the areas that support NWACC with extra taxes be considered? I don’t think they were last time.
I personally will not be as affected by this as some colleagues because I’ll probably be teaching two online sections and a hybrid—I simply won’t schedule any major assignments during either of the weeks in question, and will let my students choose which week they need to take off.
My preferences in order of most to least desirable are 1) Follow Rogers and Bentonville every time no matter what. If they are in conflict, go with Bentonville 2) Compromise: In case of a conflict between our in-district public schools and the U of A, alternate whose calendar we follow
Thanks to the administration for thinking of us!
I didn’t peruse the attachment in huge detail, but what if we got radical and started our Spring Break 2009 in the middle of the first week and ended it in the middle of the second week? Then those that have to pay babysitting fees for their children would have to pay a few days less, no matter which Spring Break they observe. Some folks might have to shorten or adjust their trips slightly, but, hey, that would save them gas money and help “Amurica.”
Since we are located in Bentonville, we should follow the Bentonville/Rogers schedule. Many students who are parents and reside in this area have trouble finding babysitters and cannot come to class. If we polled the students, I am confident the stats would show that the significant drop in attendance during past Spring Breaks which did not coincide with the Bentonville area were due to parents who could not find childcare. I have had a couple students who have attempted to bring their kids, but this is against NWACC policy. Furthermore, many of our true students (the NWACCers) live in this area.
Many of our students coming from the Fayetteville area are U of A students who do not have children, so the only hardship they face is booking a convenient flight to the Bahamas.
We should definitely be more considerate to those who reside in the area. Students who are parents should not be penalized.
Thus, my strong opinion is for Rogers, Springdale, and Bentonville’s spring break is March 23-27 (also, Huntsville, Gravette, and Siloam Springs).
Thanks for giving us a voice!!!
I believe we should choose the week which inconveniences the fewest students, whichever week that may be.
There is no acceptable choice here. However, since we must choose,
I believe the March 16-20th date should be chosen. There
are approximately 500 dually enrolled students from FHS and the UA.
I would assume that number is exponentially greater than the number
of students enrolled in the identified CIV courses. I vote for the
March 16-20th date because it will negatively impact LESS
students. I am not sure this fits the parameters you set for comment, but I offer the following thoughts. The college calendar should encourage student attendance, not discourage it. The calendar should always reflect their interests before those of employees and certainly other institutions. Moreover, I don't see how the college could adopt a calendar that would not serve the majority of its student population and, likewise, its tax base, Benton County. Vacillating back and forth is not the answer. The calendar should be predictable from year to year based on a clear policy. That's more than you asked for, I'm sure. Thanks for the opportunity.
The obvious solution is for NWACC to have spring break from March 16-27.
If, however, the Cab’s are not in favor of this, then I don’t know. Since I have no school age children, I would be inclined to say that NWACC should align with UOA because of the students who attend both schools. Of course, that doesn’t address the high school students nor the parents with children whose break does not coincide with UOA.
I guess we could have a “dead week.”
Any input I give will be selfish since my wife teaches at the U of A
and my children are in the Fayetteville school district.
In our department we have encountered problems with the schedules between here and the high schools on a number of different things. One had a week off for deer hunting and others missed classes because of pep rallies and homecoming and one for having senior pictures taken. We have found the biggest problem is that the high schools don’t realize they are the ones that need to make adjustments if they are going to offer college classes for their students. Setting up a spring break is one of those things. At some point the high schools need to look to those special students that are taking NWACC classes. If we adjust our spring break schedule to accommodate a few of the schools we are hurting a larger number of NWACC students- those that are attending both NWACC and the UA. Possibly the problem could be brought to the attention of the high schools and they could begin to think of alternatives for the CIV students. To me it’s more likely that the high schools students could make adjustments such as going to class at their high schools although they are on spring break or coming to campus to take the class that week than the UA students who probably won’t be in town during their spring break.
Whichever schedule is chosen will cause hardship on someone.
I believe our first service is to our higher ed students. If there truly is a high overlap of co-enrolled students, such as with UA...then select a break corresponding to other higher ed breaks in the region. (I am also a parent, and do understand the strain that regional school districts that do not coordinate schedules pose on the community at large...)
My main reason to follow the schedule of the U of A was because we do have co-enrolled students. I have in recent semesters had about 1/4 to 1/3 of my classes being co-enrolled. Also, some of the faculty have jobs at both colleges.
Does Diana Johnson have a sense of what percent of our enrollment consists of parents with school-aged children in districts that aren't following the UofA schedule?
What percent of our UofA students live somewhere outside of Northwest Ark? If most of the 7.5% of our student body lives in Camden, Little Rock, Searcy, etc. we should possibly arrive at a different decision than if most of them are within 30 miles or so of campus.
I think someone should be able to check enrollment numbers by zipcode.
I would have to vote for the March 23-27 dates. We are tax supported by those school districts and we have a lot of single mothers that have problems with day care and other things if the local districts are closed and we are not.
I think we need to make this decision based on what is best for student learning. Of course it is inconvenient for our dual enrolled students to have two different spring breaks, but it is their choice to attend two colleges. I am more concerned about our students who have children who will have to arrange day care to come to school during the week their children are off or stay home with their children. The report from institutional research shows that there are more students with children in the cities where spring break will be later. I hope these numbers will help us make a decision that is best for the students.
You are encouraged to cast your vote.
The survey of faculty on our recommended dates for the NWACC Spring
Break is available and will be open for votes until Wednesday, May
14, 2008. Vote at http://www.surveymethods.com/EndUser.aspx?7F5B372E7838292A
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