Just Wondering

I saw the announcement about the two-hour late start but they mention this:

The plans that six schools had for early release today have been cancelled, so those schools will release at the usual time: Eckstein, Madison, McClure, Hamilton and Whitman middle schools and Roosevelt High School.

Anyone know why those 6 schools were having an early release? I checked Roosevelt's website but couldn't find out.

FYI, I did see this at the RHS website if anyone is interested.

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Comments

hschinske said…
Hamilton had an early release to accommodate parent-teacher conferences (which are from 3 to 7 and are going to continue as scheduled -- they'd already put them off once due to the weather around Thanksgiving).

Helen Schinske
1/12/11, 10:57 AM
Sarah said…
Our middle school was either having teacher ed or teacher collaboration time.

BTW- the Superintendent originally wanted early release everyother Friday for teacher collaboration (or ed). The community complained. This option was taken off the table.

From the last board meeting...it appears the district wants to waiver our kids out of school for 3days. So, in effect isn't this a way for the district to continue eliminating educational time for our children...just a different way?!?!
1/12/11, 11:02 AM
Eric B said…
Whitman was professional development.
1/12/11, 11:20 AM
Maureen said…
Roosevelt was PD/PLC time for teachers. Brian Vance is hoping to reschedule for tomorrow.
1/12/11, 11:34 AM
TechyMom said…
Speaking as a parent, I would much rather have 3 full days off, where i can take vacation or arrange day care, than a bunch of half days and early releases. The constant changes to the schedule or just not compatible with a job. They're also way too hard to keep track of, and I'm terrified I'll forget one.

I'd rather we just extended the year by 3 days, and paid the teachers for the extra time, but I don't see that happening right now. And, yes, I'd be more than happy to pay more taxes to support that.
1/12/11, 11:34 AM
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
1/12/11, 1:26 PM
Anonymous said…
Last year, Madison provided supervised activity time at school through the YMCA on their early release days. Not enough students attended therefore it was discontinued. Almost every district in our region, including the high achieving districts, has regular (weekly in many cases)early release or late arrival days for PD.
ttln
1/12/11, 1:41 PM
Jet City mom said…
I think Madison has teacher collaboration time. They seem to have a lot of early releases throughout the school year. I've heard these early release Wednesdays are called student shoplift days because students don't use the extra time to study, they go into local stores to shoplift. Perhaps these early release days help the teachers, but it certainly doesn't help the students.

Is it reasonable to expect this to possibly be used during their planning period- occasionally?

From what I have observed, early release days force periods to be half as long, which makes getting into subject matter a joke, after taking roll, etc. So the whole day, could be pretty much a wash as far as some classrooms go- so they might as well use a full day for " inservice".
1/12/11, 1:51 PM
Sarah said…
TechyMom,

The days WON'T be made up.

This proposal decreases the school year to 177 days.
1/12/11, 2:20 PM
TechyMom said…
I know. I wish they'd make them up, but if the choice is 3 full days or 7 half days or 10 2 hour early releases, I'll take the 3 whole days. It's much less disruptive to students, and easier to schedule for parents.
1/12/11, 2:56 PM
anonymous said…
Ditto, techymom.
1/12/11, 3:51 PM
dj said…
Techymom, it depends on your childcare arrangements. A lot of parents have their kids in child care at SPS sites. If the school releases early, there is still child care, just for longer that day. If the school is closed entirely, no dice, and you have to find another care provider.

A friend of mine who uses those programs never knows when it is an early release day, because it makes no difference. We don't, so we have to make arrangements. I don't know what position the bulk of parents are in.
1/13/11, 9:18 AM
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