Early release. Longer school days. What the WCPSS calendar could look like this fall.
Wake County students could get longer school days and six new half-days added to this fall’s calendar in order to provide teachers with state-mandated training.
Wake school administrators proposed Tuesday revisions to the 2022-23 calendar that would change six full days into early release days where students are dismissed two hours early. But as part of the change, officials say five minutes may need to be added each day at every school to make sure Wake stays above state instructional time requirements.
Based on the school board’s feedback Tuesday, proposed calendar changes would be presented for a vote at the May 3 meeting.
“We’re looking at every potential option, not just what’s shared on the screen,” Drew Cook, assistant superintendent for academics, told the board on Tuesday.
LETRS training
The calendar change stems from fitting in training time for the new “science of reading” literacy instruction that state lawmakers are requiring every elementary school teacher to receive by 2024.
Teachers will receive training on the LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) program, which stresses using phonics to teach students to read. North Carolina divided school districts into three groups to receive training, with Wake beginning in January.
The LETRS training has produced complaints that the time commitment is a burden on teachers. For instance, LETRS training includes six to eight hours of virtual training, six to eight hours of in-person training as well as time working with students.
“We’re just going to have to make the best of this situation,” State Superintendent Catherine Truitt said at the March State Board of Education meeting in response to the complaints. “It’s not ideal.”
Teachers will receive up to $2,000 in bonuses after completing training.
“I know this is intense training and I don’t think any one of us likes having to make calendar changes right now as families begin to plan for next school year” school board chairwoman Lindsay Mahaffey said Tuesday. “Our teachers are beginning to plan. But hearing this required training and all that it is intended to do and how it will help our students, I think it’s important as well.”
While elementary school teachers receive LETRS training on early release days, Wake proposes that staff in middle and high schools receive “needed professional learning that has not been covered in the past two years.”
Calendar proposals
Administrators will present two calendar proposals on Tuesday.
Under calendar proposal one, each school would get six early release days:
▪ Traditional calendar: Sept. 2, Nov. 10, Nov. 22, Dec. 21, Jan. 13 and March 24.
▪ Year-round: Aug. 18 (tracks 1, 2 and 4), Sept. 2 (tracks 1, 3 and 4), Nov. 10 (tracks 1, 2 and 4), Nov. 22 (tracks 1, 3 and 4), Dec. 21 (tracks 2, 3 and 4), Jan. 13 (tracks 1, 2 and 3), March 24 (tracks 2, 3 and 4) and April 6 (tracks 1, 2 and 3).
▪ Modified calendar: Aug. 18, Sept. 2, Nov. 10, Nov. 22, Jan. 13 and April 6.
▪ Knightdale High, North Wake College and Career Academy, Vernon Malone College and Career Academy, Wake Early College High School, Wake Early College of Information and Biotechnologies: Sept. 2, Nov. 22, Dec. 21, Jan. 13, March 24 and April 6.
▪ Wake leadership academies and Wake STEM Early College: Sept. 2, Nov. 10, Nov. 22, Jan. 13, March 24 and April 6.
Calendar proposal two is an add-on to the first proposal. It includes a teacher workday on April 24 for the year-round schools so that teachers on tracks 1, 2 and 3 can get more training time.
Lengthening the school day
Wake stopped using early release days beginning in the 2019-20 school year when it went from having 180 days of instruction down to 177 days of classes. The three fewer days of classes allowed for additional teacher workdays to be added.
However, having only 177 days of classes made it harder to stay above the state minimum of 1,025 hours of instruction each school year. As a result, early release days were dropped.
But now that the early release days could return, that means 12 hours less of instruction for students. As a result, administrators proposed adding five minutes a day to all schools.
Cook said they’ll look at whether schools can stay above the 1,025-hour requirement if they don’t add in the five minutes. Without the five extra minutes, he said they might not have enough “banked time.”
Currently, all schools have a cushion, called “banked time,” where it can opt not to make up a few snow days each school year.
School board members called the proposed calendar changes an unfunded state mandate to provide the training time.
“This is the dance to appease the legislature,” said board member Jim Martin. “It is not effective for teaching and it is not effective for learning. It is merely for compliance.”
This story was originally published April 18, 2022 at 12:28 PM.
