By SUZANNE M. SCHMIDT

Freedom High School teacher Shannon Peck-Janseen is ready to cause a commotion at the next Hillsborough County School Board meeting.
During a recent PTSA general assembly meeting in the school’s auditorium, Peck-Janseen asked parents for help. A new scheduling change will require teachers to teach 300 minutes a day. According to Peck-Janseen, the change will cause an exodus of teachers to other counties, a loss of after-school and extracurricular activities and a decrease in after-school tutoring.
“We need to have parents contact other parents and get as many people involved as possible,” Peck-Janseen said. “Unless we raise a big stink, the school board won’t care. We need letters to the media and the superintendent. We need parent support and signed petitions. We need parents to see this is a crisis. We have to create a commotion now.”
Freedom teachers currently teach five out of seven class periods a day, using the other two periods for planning and extra projects. By next year, they are required to teach six out of seven class periods a day for a total of 300 minutes a day.
All schools in Hillsborough County will be held to the standard due to the class-size reduction requirements mandated by Section 1 of Article IX of the State Constitution, which was amended in November 2002 in the Florida State Constitution.
By next year, Freedom students will have classes with a 25-to-1 student-teacher ratio. Currently, the ratio is 33-to-1.
At the present time the schools have many non-certified teachers filling in due to a teacher shortage.
Freedom Principal Richard Bartels said the goal is to ensure students spend more time with certified teachers by having them teach six classes instead of five.
Teachers in core classes such as English, math, science, social studies, ESE and foreign languages will have a maximum of 150 students each semester.
Peck-Janseen said the new requirements will be detrimental to students. Many of the teachers volunteer to run clubs and extracurricular activities now because they have the time to do it. But if one of the 50-minute planning periods is taken away, they may not feel that they have the time.
“There will be very realistic consequences,” Peck-Janseen said. “We feel it is not an option; we feel we are being backed into a corner. It is not a matter of making a stand; we just won’t have time to be effective teachers and club sponsors and chaperones. We are not choosing to give up; we are being forced to give up. When it comes down to it, the students’ education is our first priority.”
Some parents voiced concern about teachers possibly leaving Hillsborough County to go to Pasco or Pinellas counties, where the 300 minute rule will not be enforced.
“I think some of the teachers will move as a result of this,” said parent Steve Martin.
The upside of the increase is that with more certified teachers teaching students, the county will receive more money. The state reduces funding for a district whenever a noncertified teacher teaches a class.
At a recent principal’s meeting, Bartels said he heard the school board members’ points of view. He understood that with more certified teachers teaching, the state would receive an additional $28 million in funding. He added that with that money, the teachers could receive a 3 percent raise. It is supposed to be an incentive to bring more teachers to the county to help fill the teacher shortage.
According to Peck-Janseen it is not enough.
“There is more money and a more reasonable work environment in Pasco and Pinellas,” Peck-Janseen said. “The certified teachers will go to other counties and then the teacher shortage will be worse than it was before. Logically, in the long run, I do not think it will work.”
Martin agrees with Peck-Janseen.
“I think some of the teachers will move on as a result of this,” Martin said. “If the number of certified teachers then drops, we will lose the funding for them. Then how much of the new $28 million will have to cover that deficit? I think we are digging a deeper hole than we already had.”
Bartels said he can see both the teachers’ side and the administration’s side.
“I understand both arguments,” Bartels said. “Some teachers will see a reduction in the amount of students they teach, but many would argue that being asked to teach an additional class will take a physical toll. Also, on the administration’s side, they have to turn in a balanced budget and the county is faced with a teacher shortage.”
He stressed that this is not an us versus them issue.
“We will do whatever we can to support the teachers,” Bartels said. “We will make sure when the teachers have their conference period, it is uninterrupted. We will not give them a lot of new preps. A teacher’s morale is very important to the overall success of the school.”
PTSA President Debbie Schurr agrees with Bartels.
“We want to do what we can to help alleviate the burden,” Schurr said. “We can write our legislator and try to get more help to the teachers.”
Peck-Janseen said she is concerned about having less time in the day because, as a teacher, there are certain rules she has to follow.
“We are required to stand, we can’t have bathroom breaks and there is no eating or drinking in the classroom,” Peck-Janseen said. “I will do anything I can to keep students interested, even act like a clown. After 300 minutes a day of work like that, I won’t have the energy to sponsor after-school activities.”
Bartels said that even though it is not an ideal situation, the school, its students and the teachers will work together to get through it.
“We have a job to do and we will do it,” Bartels said. “The teachers may not be happy about it, but we will do what we have to.”
The next school board meeting will be Feb. 13 at 5 p.m. at the School Administrative Center, 901 E. Kennedy Blvd.