High School Schedule Update from the School Committee

Dear Holliston Community Members:

We are writing to provide a further update on potential changes to the Holliston High School (HHS) Class Schedule.  At our meeting on January 9,  2025, the Holliston School Committee (HSC) ratified the schedule that was recommended by the HHS Schedule Subcommittee on December 30, 2024.  Unfortunately, we were notified by the Holliston Federation of Teachers (HFT) that the HHS Teachers had voted not to ratify this recommendation the previous day.  

As a reminder about the history of this Subcommittee: On May 20, 2024, the HSC came to a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the HFT on a successor collective bargaining contract. This agreement included the creation of a HHS Schedule Subcommittee that was tasked with researching and evaluating our current HS schedule and making a recommendation on a potential change to the schedule. This agreement went into effect on September 10, 2024, upon the passage of the operational override to fund the salary portion of the MOA. 

On December 20, 2024 that Subcommittee voted to recommend a schedule to the HSC and HFT for ratification.  This recommendation came after 3 months of work that included over 10 meetings (30+ hours) culminating in two day long meetings on December 19^th and 20^th.  This recommendation was supported by 5 of the 8 Scheduling Subcommittee members (4 administrators and 1 teacher) with the remaining 3 teachers either voting against all proposed schedules or abstaining.  The recommended schedule was Option #1 in the survey that was sent to families, students and staff.  The options that were surveyed came after a collaborative effort during which, through a series of votes within the Subcommittee, more than 8 different schedules were narrowed down by the Scheduling Subcommittee.  Other than Option 5, only schedules that received majority support within the Subcommittee were included in the survey.

Due to actions taken by HFT members on the Scheduling Subcommittee during Schedule Subcommittee meetings and leading up to the ratification vote taken on January 8th, the HSC filed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge against the HFT on January 22, 2025. We assert that on multiple occasions, the HFT and its leadership failed to bargain in good faith as is required by Massachusetts labor laws. 

While we believe that it is unfortunate that we had to take this action, we also want to make unequivocally clear that the HSC remains open and committed to working with the HFT to implement a new schedule for the 2025-26 school year.  

We have requested “expedited review” as part of our Unfair Labor Practice charge against the Holliston Federation. However, there is no guarantee that this process will be expedited.  Consequently, because we must continue to take steps to move the district forward and address significant concerns that have been discussed about the current schedule, the HSC will also move forward with an alternative path. At our  meeting last night, the HSC voted to direct Dr. Kustka to consider the feasibility of making some minor adjustments in the implementation of our existing schedule  to allow for classes to run year long. Specifically, we requested information about the feasibility of using the existing schedule to implement an A/B class scheduling model where classes meet every other day and students take 8 classes at a time but for the entire year. We also asked that this information be presented to the HSC in a timely fashion for our consideration on potentially voting to implement this initiative for next year at a future meeting.  While we recognize this is not ideal, we need to look at alternatives in the event that  our filing cannot be resolved expeditiously as we work towards improving our educational offering for students. 

The HSC recognizes that there will be a lot of questions about this potential change in class scheduling model, as well as, the significant impact that this might have on students.  We do not take this potential change lightly and hope that we will be able to come to an agreement with the HFT that will allow us to move forward with the schedule recommended by the Schedule Subcommittee.  At the same time, we do not believe that allowing for continued delays is an option either.  We plan to communicate more information as it becomes available and as we are able to communicate.  In the interim, please feel free to reach out to the HSC with any questions and we will do the best we can to answer them. 

Sincerely,

HHS Schedule Committee Recommendation

For additional information and discussion regarding the high school schedule, we are sharing a link to last night’s school committee meeting.