Wilton BOE Hears Details on Revised Draft of Cider Mill Schedule

Administrators from Cider Mill School shared a revision of their planned schedule change with the Board of Education on Thursday night, March 21, standing by their conviction that the new plan is in the best interest of the World Language (WL) program.

Several people previously expressed concern about proposed changes that include a reduction in the time for WL. French and Spanish teachers will no longer have dedicated classrooms but teach from a cart during science and social studies periods with tie-ins to those curriculums.

“I’m confident that this is the right choice for our kids,” Principal Jennifer Falcone said, with the idea behind the original schedule change, which was first presented to the BOE on March 7, centering on less transition time for students and longer blocks in most subject areas, as well as longer lunch and recess periods.

“Garnering the feedback from parents and the faculty, the biggest piece that was noticed was just how short the time was that people were concerned with,” Assistant Principal David Dudics said about WL time being cut in half.

“Making some adjustments we increased the time to 30 minutes three times a week,” he said, up from the five 15-minute blocks that were being scheduled inside science and social studies periods.

“We were also able to still create an 80-minute block of math one time a week,” he said.

Dudic drew on the words of some Cider Mill students he interviewed about the change, whom he said largely voiced their support. He and Falcone also said the WL teachers were pleased with what they described as version 2.0 of the schedule planned to go into effect next school year.

Parent Michelle Martinez, however, stood by her conviction that WL would not be properly taught by melding it with the science and social studies content in the regular classroom, stating that the district was not honoring input from the WL teachers themselves.

“I’d really like the board to contemplate why it is that we are considering a curriculum change that is not being recommended by the teachers that are currently in the school, by your subject-matter experts,” she said.

“We haven’t seen any detrimental impact at all in our language programs that would call for, or even necessitate, a radical change to the program … So I really want to encourage the board to continue to ask questions and to get a further understanding from the existing teachers that are in the program, or even from those that are in middle school or high school, to get their point of view on whether or not this is the best path forward,” said Martinez, whose mother is a world language teacher.

She suggested that the new schedule use less of the additional time now being earmarked for special classes, including music, P.E. and art, and channel some back to WL.

Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Charles Smith defended the change as educationally sound.

“They’re not teaching science and social studies units,” he said. “They’re taking some vocabulary” from these content areas “and then developing their own units that address the standards of World Language.”

“They will still be learning all of the basics … They’re still learning all of the same things, but they’re pulling some of the vocabulary … from science and social studies,” he said.

“I believe that the students will achieve a greater level of proficiency … I truly believe this is the way to go,” he said.

Next month Smith said Cider Mill’s WL teachers would pay a visit to New Canaan to begin learning how to incorporate science and social studies curriculum units into their related instruction. He said that New Canaan is also looking to partner with Wilton in some capacity regarding world language going forward.

According to its website, New Canaan Public Schools offers a K-12 WL program, with Spanish taught exclusively from kindergarten through grade five, where it is taught in tandem with social studies. Once students get to middle school there are the added options to instead take French, Latin or Mandarin, or to continue with Spanish.

Wilton’s program begins in grade three at Cider Mill, offering students either French or Spanish.

BOE Chair Ruth DeLuca shared indirect support for the revised schedule at this time, including changes to WL.

“I think any type of change is always hard,” she said, “and I think that there are some things that are recognizable and loved about our WL program, and we’d like to see those complemented and augmented to some extent.”

She told Smith it would be beneficial to show parents a clear example of how New Canaan is presenting its WL program in a way that can help Wilton parents identify with the new model being planned.

“I think that helps kind of quell that nervousness a bit … something that just kind of like helps parents and kids kind of wrap their arms about what that content shift looks like,” she said.

DeLuca also indicated support for the schedule change itself.

“I definitely think that the idea of slowing down the school, giving teachers the ability to have more time allotments, to be able to be more creative or move with the needs of their class as that may dictate itself, would definitely be a positive thing,” she said.