On Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023, at 7:30 a.m. in Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech)’s conference room, the School Site Council (SSC) voted against a proposed change to the bell schedule for the 2024-2025 academic year.

While the majority of the SSC anonymously voted no, the ballots were close, with five votes in favor of the bell schedule change and six against it.

With the vote being tight, members of Foothill Tech faculty have voiced their worries about the results of the election. One major concern was the vote’s potential impact on the “Teach 5” model that various staff members hope to get granted in the future.

Dianne Fergus stated, “We have been guided to believe that if our schedule were to match Buena [High School] and Ventura [High School]’s that the school district would be more likely to grant the five of seven change,” explaining why some members of the staff weren’t content with the results of the voting.

While the election results may have an impact on the “Teach 5” changes, Fergus is still optimistic for more negotiating, she expressed, “I’m hopeful that its not the end of our ability to ask for teachers to be able to teach five of seven in negotiations.”

Similarly, Principal Russell Gibbs suggested to the SSC that there’s still potential for a “Teach 5” model, commenting that, “I know that this can still go to negotiations for the five of seven [change]. I know the hope was that [the proposed schedule] would have a bit more leverage with that [district negotiations],” concluding that, “there’s still some hope for the teacher’s progress with the schedule changes.”

Ariel Montejano ‘25, President of the SSC, spoke on what the decision will mean for Foothill Tech, sympathizing with both perspectives on the decision. Montejano claimed, “Positively, we still have our schedule … if we changed to the other schedule there would be a lot of negatives.”

Weighing in on the negative impact the vote may impose, Montejano communicated, “The negatives if we’re staying to this schedule is teachers are not being [listened to by] the school district,” going on to say, “I think that’s gonna lead teachers to possibly leaving next year.”

Many teachers at Foothill Tech were unhappy with the outcome of the vote and declined to comment. However, Emily Hunt, Physics and Advanced Placement (AP) Environmental Science teacher, voiced her opinion on the subject, saying, “I have a mixed feeling because I didn’t really want to teach that long of blocks. I feel like after a certain point we all kind of lose our attention span.”

On the other hand, Hunt also added, “However, I think that it does get a little complicated as teachers would like to teach five instead of six classes and have a schedule that’s more similar, or is the same, as Buena [High School] and Ventura [High School].”

In discussing the rationale behind the SSC’s vote of not implementing a new bell schedule, Hunt mentioned that, “I feel like the decision was based on two major factors. One was that students enjoy benefits from FIRE [Freshman Intervention Reinforcement and Enrichment Program]. They don’t always enjoy it, but it’s helpful, and then the other was that some students want the ability to go off campus during lunch.”

Aware that the vote might cause dissatisfaction, particularly among teachers, Assistant Principal Katie Tedford concluded the SSC meeting with a public comment, expressing gratitude to everyone involved and emphasizing the core purpose of the SSC. She said, “Everyone at this table has really put a lot into this process and I think no matter how the vote went today, we are going to move forward and support our kids.”

Overall, the vote against the proposed bell schedule will continue to be a topic of discussion for teachers and staff members at Foothill Tech. There is still hope among many staff to advocate for the “Teach 5” model. In the meantime, Foothill Tech’s schedule will remain the same, with FIRE and 90-minute class periods remaining unchanged.

Editor’s note: In the original publication of the article, it was stated that teachers at Foothill Tech lacked “personal time” to match the time for preparation that teachers of Ventura and Buena are allotted. This phrasing was misleading and was corrected on Dec. 2, 2023, to clarify the purpose of the SSC vote.