After the introduction of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) time for high school faculty this school year, a new proposal is being considered by the school board to extend that time.
The new proposal states that staff developmental days, also known as half-days, would be eliminated for all four high schools.
Instead, the PLC time would be extended to 90 minutes, occurring every other Monday. Classes would begin at 9:46 a.m. on these late start days, and each class hour would be 34 minutes long . On these late start days, high school buses would run at a later time.
“By having every other Monday a late start, it will give teachers a frequent opportunity to meet. Ninety minute, uninterrupted time, more frequently than the once-a-month gave us. It’ll be a lot more time to continue working together, continue sharing and supporting each other on a continual basis and as a result, this can only have a positive impact in the classroom.” Principal John Shaughnessy said.
Shaughnessy, along with Jeff Marx, science teacher, was a part of a district-wide committee to examine how the current PLC time was working and how it could be improved. The committee proposed the new PLC times at the latest school board meeting on Dec. 6.
“We really need an opportunity for teachers to come together to discuss and put these ideas out there, so that decisions can be made. There really hasn’t been time for that to happen. Once a month isn’t good enough,” Marx said.
Though the proposal has its benefits, it also comes with some downfalls. The largest being the estimated cost for a new bus schedule: $70,000.
“All four high schools spend about $15,000-25,000 already on professional development for our teachers to go outside of our normal schedule day to work on professional learning community time,” Shaughnessy explained. “If we were to save that money by not having to spend them because we had a system that would allow us to do that in a normal basis, then we’re really not looking at an additional $70,000 cost. We’re looking reallocating current funds to help support this program in a different structure then we currently have right now.”
“The argument is that $70,000 isn’t that much if you consider what the potential benefits are, and if you look at it alongside the overall district budget,” Marx added.
Marx says that though a new schedule might be hard to get used to at first, he believes it will be an improvement from the current half-day schedule.
“Anytime you introduce an irregularity to a school day, that’s something that is somewhat jarring until everybody gets used to it. But, what the hope is, over time, these every-other Mondays that we’ll have will become more or less routine. A benefit of these late start days is that we will have 34 minute classes,” he said.
The school board will review the proposal during the next meeting, Dec. 20, and will most likely decide on whether or not to approve this schedule.
The Image also interview students and staff members on their opinions of the proposal. Check out our video and comment below with your thoughts.
