Country Day has the reputation of being one of the best—if not the best—independent schools in Sacramento. This reputation is largely due to our superb faculty and low student-to-teacher ratios, which allow for a lot of individual attention from the teachers.

This method has been working for years to produce many academically driven graduates.

But it is hard for teachers to give students the individual attention the school advertises when teachers have so much to do.

A perfect example of overloaded teachers in a popular subject occurs in the Spanish department.

Spanish teacher Meridith Oram, who is leaving at the end of this year, considered her overloaded schedule in her decision to leave. She teaches five sections of Spanish (Spanish II, III, two Spanish IV classes, AP Spanish), giving her four different preps.

Next year, at the Urban School of San Francisco, Oram will have three classes, only two preps (in a block schedule), and three other Spanish faculty members with whom to confer.

Oram mentioned a high turnover rate in the Spanish department.

“To facilitate the students’ learning of Spanish, there needs to be more consistency or balance as to how the workload is divided, so that they have experience working with different teachers that have strengths in different areas,” she said.

Another department that has felt this pressure is science.

First-year teacher Kellie Whited has five classes, all needing lectures, homework, labs and tests.

She also has taught four different classes—Chemistry, AP Biology, Nutrition (first semester), and Physiology (second semester). And part-time math teacher Zach Matley prepares for four classes: Honors Algebra II, Intro to Programming, AP Computer Science and Calculus.

It is clear that these departments have been very popular over the years and will remain so. This is why SCDS needs to make teachers’ workloads more manageable.

The school needs to hire more faculty, or redefine “part-time” and “full-time” positions to allow a lighter workload for our increasingly busy teachers. Whether this means making a “full-time” position four sections and no more than three preps or, three sections, two preps and an elective, either alternative would be better.

With fewer preps teachers could use the extra time to grade or explain difficult lessons to students. Or they could teach elective courses that tie in with their subject but are taught with a different approach, like an elective on Spanish literature. Thus they could offer the intimate teaching we advertise.