Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Teacher Workload topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
District adds early-dismissal Wednesdays for extra middle-school planning time, officials say
Summary
Catoosa County Public Schools will add two half days this year and four next year dedicated to additional planning time districtwide; the change was made largely to reduce disparity between middle- and high-school noninstructional minutes.
CATOOSA COUNTY, Ga. — Catoosa County Public Schools leaders told staff the district added planning time for middle-school teachers by including them in early-dismissal Wednesdays, a change intended to reduce disparities in daily noninstructional minutes across grade bands.
The superintendent said data and employee pulse surveys showed middle-school teachers had less planning time than high-school teachers because of the district’s block schedules. “When we looked through all that data, we realized there was some disparity in what our middle school teachers were getting ... and so that's what made us make the decision to go ahead and include them in that early dismissal Wednesday time,” the superintendent said.
Officials said the district added two half days in the current year dedicated to planning time and will have four such half-day sessions in the next school calendar. The measure aims to give middle-school teachers parity with colleagues who receive longer daily planning blocks in other grade bands.
District leaders characterized the change as a response to staff feedback collected through internal surveys and said principals and central office officials will continue to monitor scheduling and instructional minutes.
The district did not announce schedule changes for individual schools beyond the systemwide addition of the half days; principals were directed to work with staff to implement the planning blocks.
