T he Tahoma School District superintendent has come up with two alternatives to the Monday late starts next year, and the district wants feedback from families before or during this Tuesday’s school board meeting.
Superintendent Mike Maryanski reviewed initial feedback from parents, staff and the school board to devise two options, both on Fridays: a 90-minute late start on Fridays or a 90-minute early release on Fridays.
“Friday was a popular alternative to Mondays for staff development time,” says district spokesman Kevin Patterson.
A special school board meeting has been scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Rock Creek Elementary gym, allowing space and time for community members to argue for their preferred options. The school board hopes to choose one that very night, but if they cannot, they intend to decide by the end of the year so that families can be notified of the altered calendar, Patterson says.
The plan grew out of meetings earlier in the year of the district’s principals, who wanted to provide more frequent professional development time for the district’s teachers. Tahoma is one of the few districts in the region that still holds staff training and collaboration on full or half days just a few times a year. Most districts have moved to weekly professional development using districtwide late arrival or early release. Read more HERE and HERE.
At a March school board meeting, the principals proposed starting school 90 minutes late each Monday. This would replace the three full-release days and nine early-release days that Tahoma currently uses for professional development. The November parent conference schedule would not change.
Many parents and teachers, however, complained about the choice of Mondays.
“Teachers raised concerns about the Monday late-arrival plan, including impact on families and wanting to have students start fresh first thing on Mondays,” says Patterson.
Many parents advocated starting the weekend early with a Friday early release, but the principals were concerned that could wreak havoc on transportation to after-school activities and sports.
Can’t make the meeting? You can add to the comments below, which are read by district officials.
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I prefer Late Start Mondays. It allows for extra preparation to the school week. ( A well used weekend can mean a piece of homework is missed or does not make it into the backpack.) Friday early release every week would create a bit more havoc for the 4-corners area – many unsupervised youth from the Junior High.
This is outrageous. I don’t prefer either option. In the 2011-2012 calendar year, there were 3 Full Staff Development days and every month has at least one 1/2 day.How about these half days already in place be used for staff development instead of taking away from more learning time? Or, allow the teachers to have a sub and take a full day a month for their own development. This would allow them to go to a seminar or the likes. 90 mins before or after school will not really allow anyone to access a true learning opportunity, would it?
Are we making it harder on our already over-worked, time taxed teaching staff to get everything done that is required of them in a week?
In one of my children’s classes, that teacher is out several days a month for career development. I do understand the need for development, but to take away from academics 90 mins a week seems extreme. Will there be formalized classes for the educators during this time? I know we have a minimum amount of days we have to have the kids in school, but maybe this should be broken down into tracking hours….
Has anyone taken the time to see how the other districts have utilized their additional staff development time and how it is positively effecting academics in those districts?
Maybe before we just jump on board because everyone else is doing it, we should do our own homework first??!!
As the story says, the weekly release time would replace the current full and half days. The new schedule would not take away more learning time. -Ed.
Early release on Friday’s makes the most sense all around. If you have vacation or weekend plans you might be able to get out of town early.
Early release on Friday is “nice” for enjoying the weekend a little early, however with teenagers, I love any opportunity to have my kids sleep in a little later – especially given how early the jr. high starts. Getting 8 hours of sleep is really difficult, let alone the 9-10 hours my son performs better at. I actually preferred the late start on Monday’s.
Turning teenagers loose early in the day can sometimes cause a little havoc, particularly when parents are still at work- but teenagers almost never get in trouble in the morning hours. 90% of them will be sleeping in the extra 90 minutes – which is good for getting better academic performance from them as well.
EARLY RELEASE ON FRIDAYS MAKES MORE SENSE THAN STARTING LATE