A conservative member of a committee tasked to examine a controversial bell schedule for Coronado High School has quit just before its findings were to be presented to the board of trustees.
Michael (Mike) Iversen told The Coronado News he left the group on May 2, after advocating for change and accountability among district leadership and a review of the 4×4 bell schedule while running for the school board last year.
He said the committee was stacked with people who are not willing to challenge the district, and it had a number of poorly attended public forums, except for the faculty feedback sessions at CHS.
““I don’t want to be part of this anymore because I don’t want to be part of something that’s trying to, in my opinion, either whitewash or minimize.”
-Michael Iversen
“I don’t want to be part of this anymore because I don’t want to be part of something that’s trying to, in my opinion, either whitewash or minimize,” said Iversen. “My reasons for leaving were more personal and because I didn’t feel like it was a good spot for me any longer.”
Committee conflict
Iversen also said some members of the committee accused him of wanting to use it as a springboard to run for public office in two years, and he was being personally attacked. However, he didn’t want to disclose with whom he had differences.
Board Vice President Dr. Scot Youngblood, who nominated Iversen, said he thanked Iversen for his willingness to volunteer his time and efforts.
Youngblood said the remaining six members of the subcommittee are currently preparing the report, which should be presented at the May 18 regular School Board meeting.
“I am confident the community will receive a fair and comprehensive assessment of the new bell schedule,” said Youngblood.
Voicing strong opinions
The 4×4 bell schedule is in its second year after being implemented at CHS in the fall of 2021, and it was a campaign issue for some school board candidates last year.
A majority of the governing board in January created a subcommittee to evaluate the 4×4 bell schedule to provide teachers, students, parents, and community members an opportunity to provide feedback on the schedule with an aim toward identifying strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvements.
The five trustees each appointed a committee member and the group included Kevin Ashley, Roelof Roos, Stephanie Slaughter, Brian Trotier and Iversen.
Trustee Alexia Palacios-Peters and Youngblood oversee the committee. Other committee members declined to comment on Iversen’s departure.
Iversen’s decision to walk away comes as the group stopped taking community input and in the midst of preparing recommendations for the school board’s May 18 meeting.
“I have strong opinions about this. And I came in, and I voiced those opinions and I stood up for them,” said Iversen.
Stance on the 4×4
The 53-year-old said he accepted the appointment to be on the committee because his youngest will complete his freshman year and his daughter will graduate from Coronado High School in June.
“I saw this as an opportunity to potentially learn more about the 4×4 and the motivation of the district in doing it as well as the implementation and how the stakeholders felt about it and potentially the ability to make changes or not, just depending on where the data led us to,” said Iversen.
The committee faced some push back from community members when it decided to have closed meetings.
“It’s really purely out of a motivation of let’s make sure people feel comfortable to come in and share their thoughts and not have people that have agendas on either side, good or bad, being able to be part of that,” said Iversen. “Maybe it would’ve been better if we kept the meetings open because at least some of this stuff that went on, there would’ve been other people there to see it.”
Iversen: Math teachers upset with 4X4
Iversen added that no changes, upgrades, or teacher training have happened since implementation of the new schedule, and he wants district leadership to evaluate block schedule classes that are not working, such as math courses and the shrinking enrollment for advanced science classes.
Iversen said that the committee was tasked with gathering feedback for improvement considerations, not changes, but the feedback gathered supports classes requiring a year-long format and not being supported by the 4×4 block schedule.
According to Iversen, math teachers were among the most verbal groups in feedback sessions, reporting that there is not enough time to cover material, and they learned that some teachers have not changed their lesson plans.
Iversen said the committee also found that students who had to retake classes usually left the district to do so.
Iversen considers this a weakness in the schedule because the limited amount of classes and staff at CHS makes it difficult for students to remediate classes at the school.
