Students

start late;

teachers get

time to share

It’s nearly 7:20 a.m. at Hazen High School. On any other day, campus would be buzzing with straggling students. But today, except for staff cars, the parking lots are deserted. A girl wearing shorts and a T-shirt runs inside to join other dancers. No other students are around. Upstairs, lockers line the empty hallways. Only a few classrooms are lit.

The library is one of the lighted rooms. Inside, a group of teachers sits around three long tables pushed together. On the table are a couple boxes of doughnut holes and mugs, commuter and paper cups or bottles of coffee, tea or Coke. One teacher has a smoothie.

These teachers are gathered in the library because it’s a late-start Friday. That means every student throughout the district starts school 90 minutes late. That pushes Hazen’s start time back to 8:50 a.m.

But not for teachers and staff. The 30 late starts, were, after all, created to give them collaboration time.

“Late starts, delayed starts, they’re referred to in many different ways,” says Randy Matheson, school district spokesperson. “But really, collaboration time is what it is.”

There are three types of color-coded late-start Fridays. The first is called collaboration, in which staff meet in groups determined by grade levels. The second is building development, in which the whole building’s staff works on planning, with presentations by the principal or a guest. The third day is individual conference and planning time.

Today’s late-start Friday is pink, which means it’s collaboration day.

The group meeting in Hazen’s library are counselors and teachers in the ninth-grade smaller learning communities. The concept is that a ninth-grade student travels with the same group to four classes: health, information technology, language arts and science.

Other groups of staff and teachers are meeting in other areas throughout the school.

Principal Sue Beeson is sitting on one side of the middle of the table in the library. The group is talking about curriculum.

“I think there’s some really good ideas around the table,” Beeson says to the staff and teachers, many who are taking notes.

Hazen and other Renton high schools had some late starts lastyear, but not nearly as many, or with as clear aims, as this year’s.

Beeson is a fan of the late starts.

“I think they are absolutely critical for the work that we need to do around learning and achievement,” she says. “It’s really important for teachers to have the time to work together.”

It takes a village, or a team, to help students learn, Beeson adds.

“A teacher cannot do this all by themselves; they need to do it in tandem with others in the building,” she says.

Before this year and the advent of the late starts, teachers simply did not have time for collaboration. Each teacher received only one period a day for planning time. Further planning had to be done before or after school.

“Before we had late starts, we rarely had staff get together,” says Ray McCabe, Hazen’s marketing instructor, DECA adviser and business-education department head.

Although the late starts have required some getting used to, Carly Glockner is glad to have them. Glockner is Hazen’s health and culinary arts teacher.

“I’m really glad we have this time together,” she says. “When I became a teacher I thought, ‘Good, I’m going to have lots of time to meet teachers and pick their brains. But that wasn’t true.”

Each late start is guided by four questions, aimed at improving student learning and achievement.

Reports from each late start are sent to the district, which is monitoring the effectiveness of the collaboration time. The 10 cabinet members of the district’s superintendent attend late-start Fridays at schools throughout the district.

“Anybody who thinks we’re just kicking back, watching the news and drinking coffee… no, there is accountability,” says Kerri Dowd, Hazen’s head of the family and consumer sciences department.

The 30 late starts will continue next school year, Matheson says.

“They’re benefiting teachers, and they really are going at this the way we intended,” he says. “They’re bettering their skills as teachers to help students in the classroom.”

The staff and teachers in Hazen’s library finish about 8:30 a.m., just as students begin trickling in for pre-class reading and research. The school’s halls and parking lots are now full with students preparing for first period, which starts a full 90 minutes late today, at 8:50 a.m.

Emily Garland can be reached at emily.garland@reporternewspapers.com or (425) 255-3484, ext. 5052.

Students

start late;

teachers get

time to share

It’s nearly 7:20 a.m. at Hazen High School. On any other day, campus would be buzzing with straggling students. But today, except for staff cars, the parking lots are deserted. A girl wearing shorts and a T-shirt runs inside to join other dancers. No other students are around. Upstairs, lockers line the empty hallways. Only a few classrooms are lit.

The library is one of the lighted rooms. Inside, a group of teachers sits around three long tables pushed together. On the table are a couple boxes of doughnut holes and mugs, commuter and paper cups or bottles of coffee, tea or Coke. One teacher has a smoothie.

These teachers are gathered in the library because it’s a late-start Friday. That means every student throughout the district starts school 90 minutes late. That pushes Hazen’s start time back to 8:50 a.m.

But not for teachers and staff. The 30 late starts, were, after all, created to give them collaboration time.

“Late starts, delayed starts, they’re referred to in many different ways,” says Randy Matheson, school district spokesperson. “But really, collaboration time is what it is.”

There are three types of color-coded late-start Fridays. The first is called collaboration, in which staff meet in groups determined by grade levels. The second is building development, in which the whole building’s staff works on planning, with presentations by the principal or a guest. The third day is individual conference and planning time.

Today’s late-start Friday is pink, which means it’s collaboration day.

The group meeting in Hazen’s library are counselors and teachers in the ninth-grade smaller learning communities. The concept is that a ninth-grade student travels with the same group to four classes: health, information technology, language arts and science.

Other groups of staff and teachers are meeting in other areas throughout the school.

Principal Sue Beeson is sitting on one side of the middle of the table in the library. The group is talking about curriculum.

“I think there’s some really good ideas around the table,” Beeson says to the staff and teachers, many who are taking notes.

Hazen and other Renton high schools had some late starts lastyear, but not nearly as many, or with as clear aims, as this year’s.

Beeson is a fan of the late starts.

“I think they are absolutely critical for the work that we need to do around learning and achievement,” she says. “It’s really important for teachers to have the time to work together.”

It takes a village, or a team, to help students learn, Beeson adds.

“A teacher cannot do this all by themselves; they need to do it in tandem with others in the building,” she says.

Before this year and the advent of the late starts, teachers simply did not have time for collaboration. Each teacher received only one period a day for planning time. Further planning had to be done before or after school.

“Before we had late starts, we rarely had staff get together,” says Ray McCabe, Hazen’s marketing instructor, DECA adviser and business-education department head.

Although the late starts have required some getting used to, Carly Glockner is glad to have them. Glockner is Hazen’s health and culinary arts teacher.

“I’m really glad we have this time together,” she says. “When I became a teacher I thought, ‘Good, I’m going to have lots of time to meet teachers and pick their brains. But that wasn’t true.”

Each late start is guided by four questions, aimed at improving student learning and achievement.

Reports from each late start are sent to the district, which is monitoring the effectiveness of the collaboration time. The 10 cabinet members of the district’s superintendent attend late-start Fridays at schools throughout the district.

“Anybody who thinks we’re just kicking back, watching the news and drinking coffee… no, there is accountability,” says Kerri Dowd, Hazen’s head of the family and consumer sciences department.

The 30 late starts will continue next school year, Matheson says.

“They’re benefiting teachers, and they really are going at this the way we intended,” he says. “They’re bettering their skills as teachers to help students in the classroom.”

The staff and teachers in Hazen’s library finish about 8:30 a.m., just as students begin trickling in for pre-class reading and research. The school’s halls and parking lots are now full with students preparing for first period, which starts a full 90 minutes late today, at 8:50 a.m.

Emily Garland can be reached at emily.garland@reporternewspapers.com or (425) 255-3484, ext. 5052.