Center Grove administration outlines plan to shift student start times and add teacher collaboration blocks

Center Grove Community School Corporation administrators presented a final proposal to adjust student start times, create two regular blocks of teacher collaboration/professional development and add dedicated elementary prep time, saying the changes would increase on‑site teacher collaboration while keeping the district above state minimum instructional minutes. The board of trustees received the report and offered comment but did not take action; administration said the board previously approved related student schedule changes at an earlier meeting.

Administration framed the proposal as a way to align secondary start times more closely with teenage sleep cycles while providing teachers scheduled time for collective planning. “Our goal was originally to adjust the sleep time to better‑align with the sleep cycles of teenagers,” Doctor Long said in the presentation. The administration cited research on collective teacher efficacy and district survey results in presenting the schedule alternatives.

Why it matters: administrators said scheduled teacher collaboration time — PLCs and job‑embedded PD — would give teachers structured time to plan and follow up, which they argued has a larger effect on student learning than modest changes in class size. The proposed schedule also consolidates several…