Published: April 29, 2008 11:24 am            

No more half-days at Greater Clark County Schools

In place of half-day in-services, teachers at every grade level at Greater Clark County Schools will receive professional development during weekly hour-long sessions starting this fall.

The change — which knocks out about five half-days ordinarily on the school calendar — was approved by the GCCS board of school trustees at a Monday board meeting.

The adjustment will give middle- and high-school students a later start to the school day once a week, but keep elementary school students on the same schedule.

The only noticeable change for elementary-level students will be the one-hour-per-week teachers will be out of the classroom. During that time, school officials plan to offer students a variety of programs — such as mentoring, service learning and health instruction. Paraprofessionals will be overseeing the weekly sessions.

Teachers, meanwhile, will be using the dedicated weekly sessions to meet the necessary professional development requirements under Indiana’s student improvement and accountability law — Public Law 221 — and the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Joyce Traub, principal of Charlestown Middle School, said she liked the idea of the weekly sessions, because it will give teachers an opportunity to discuss children’s needs on a more consistent basis, as opposed to the four to six half-days they had in the past dedicated to professional development.

“This will really help,” Traub said, noting that the structured time at her school will involve study groups, discussions of best-practice literature, critical-error analysis and needs-based assessments.

The dedicated professional-development time will vary at each school according to the individual school’s improvement plan, a requirement under Public Law 221. Those plans will be up for board approval in June.

The board — which received the 80- to 120-page-thick improvement plans for each school in the district on Monday — voted 6-0 to approve the schedule change after a brief discussion.

Board member Bill Halter at first questioned the wisdom in taking teachers away from the students for an hour every week, but after discussing it with board members and hearing from some of the staff in attendance at the meeting, concluded that it’s probably “no different than wasting time on chocolate sales.”

Board member Ernie Gilbert characterized the measure as a good start and member Missy DeArk said she supports it, as long as it “helps our teachers.”

This isn’t the first time the school board has tinkered with the 2008-09 school calendar. In December, the board approved a measure eliminating block scheduling at the high school level in favor of a traditional seven-period day.

Superintendent Tony Bennett said he was skeptical of the latest schedule change at first, but was sold on it after hearing what he characterized as overwhelming support from parents.

“I think it’s going to be a great addition to our seven-period day,” Bennett said.

Amy Schellenberg, director of curricular services, said the difficulty parents have adjusting to half-day schedules was one of the factors in considering the change.

“Half-day increments are not very popular with parents,” Schellenberg said.

        

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