Use of Time Survey -- Family

The Use of Time Task Force, including parents, teachers, and administrators, has been exploring ways to provide teachers with collaborative planning/professional development time.  This time is used to help teachers improve their practice and support student learning.  Described below are three approaches to providing this time.  Please review these and then answer the questions below.  Thank you.

A.  Keep current structure of Early Release/Late Arrival days (click here to see current schedule)

Strengths:	Long enough block of time to get into the work.
Concerns:	Unpredictable schedule, too many interruptions for learning, need for child care.

B.  Provide weekly Early Release or Late Arrival days for all students.  To do this, we would shorten the amount of time on each Early Release/Late Arrival day and lengthen the other days so that there is no loss in overall instructional time.

Strengths:	Predictable for family planning, more often so teacher learning is continuous.
Concerns:	No full weeks of school, too many interruptions to learning, hard for families to manage child care.

C.  Provide intermittant whole days, perhaps 3-5 days total, rather than Early Release or Late Arrival time.  This would require a waiver from the State Board of Education to reduce the total number of school days below the 180 days now required.

Strengths:	Longer block of learning time for teachers, fewer interruptions to the instructional program, opportunities for family/out of school activities.
Concerns:	Reduction in total learning time, child care may be difficult.