CVUSD Schools restructure homework policy

School’s across the nation are trying out the policy, and now three elementary schools in the Coachella Valley Unified School District are joining the trend; Mountain Vista, Oasis, and Cesar Chavez.

“It’s more like a homework restructuring policy. There’s schools around the nation who have been sort of piloting this program and some have implemented and found that, you know what, it is good to have, especially elementary kids have the that time to read, and also spend time with their family to do other things, do arts and crafts, talk and discuss things instead of being buried in a book,” said CVUSD’s Superintendent, Dr. Adams.

Richard Razo, president of the Coachella Valley Teacher’s Association, said teachers at Oasis and Cesar Chavez decided to implement the homework policy after a year’s long battle of contract issues in association with “working to rule”-which means teachers only spend time on classwork while school is in session. Prep time is one of the teacher’s main requests to the district.

“We’re looking for prep time in our elementary because right now teachers are being asked to do more. We’re being asked to correct homework, we’re being asked to test, we’re being asked to read these essays and then to prepare class,” said Razo.

Adams had a different response.

“Our no homework policy was starting to be developed over a year ago. One of our schools started like two years ago, they learned about it from other districts. So this has no relationship to the issue with our teacher’s union,” said Adams.

One thing the homework policy isn’t changing is CVUSD’s attendance record. Today Adams rewarded “perfect attendance” students to a limo ride and brunch at Broken Yolk.

“In fact, we have one of the highest attendance rates in the state of California, like 98 percent of our students come to school every day,” said Adams.

Students say this is a big motivation to continue making school one of their main priorities.