School Calendar

[Amy Coulson]

Hello,

I am a former teacher of 13 years from Kentucky.  When we moved here, I was surprised by Wednesday half days for elementary schools.  I just am hoping that especially with the need to revisit the school calendar to go along with regulations coming from the state that you will revisit Wednesdays.  Those days seem to prove complicated for many working families, but even still, after living here for four years, it seems teachers struggle too.

I have spoken to teachers who have struggled during the week because they have lost any type of "planning time" on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday or Friday due to no subs and they seem tired and irritable.  That is not great for students.  I was confused how a principal could request teachers to cover or take away the planning, by having teachers just keep their students instead of them going to their AMPL classes when no subs were available.  Then, after listening to the board meetings, it seems that is contracted planning time.  My confusion is why it has been brought to the table to have time each day for teachers to "plan" that isn't able to be touched versus just that Wednesday time.  Plus, having a full day on Wednesday seems like it would be great for everyone.  It would add the needed time to the calendar.  If teachers get the compromise of the needed time daily to plan throughout the week, I feel like they wouldn't be burnt out or tired or frustrated.  I have heard more times than I want to that there were no subs and teachers were covering for others so they didn't get any time to breath/regroup/ plan.

Again, I don't know many districts anywhere that do half days on any days, so I would think that should be revisited in a major way to fix the upcoming calendar issue.  Also, I have wondered about the three days off for conferences.  I understand maybe one day, but having three (I think one may be a planning/PD for educators too), that is also awkward and adds a complexity to the calendar that doesn't seem necessary.  Again, parent teacher conferences where I am from where held, before, after, or during planning time for teachers/students and usually one long day and then parents could fill in as needed if they couldn't make it.  With all the zoom meetings that teachers are doing for these conferences, I don't know that we need two full days out of school especially when they don't last more than 10-15 minutes.  Now, middle school teachers who have more students, I feel like they made need more time, but again, these are areas that if you are looking at other districts, could help find some more hours.

I really hope that you will concern revisiting the half day Wednesdays because it is inconvenient for families here that work( especially if not moving it to half day Fridays were lab employees could watch their own kids those days).  Also, I worry that teachers are not getting the planning they need daily to be more energetic and organized in their classrooms.  Again, these are just thoughts from someone who was a bit shocked learning how Los Alamos did their calendar.  I appreciate your time and reading my comments.

I am still for the calendar that is most like what is in place now and revisiting ways to find those hours without making drastic changes. 

Have a good day.

Amy Coulson

Parent