The board is being asked to consider shortening the school year for students by eight days for the coming year. This proposal is for one-year only. The reduction in student days will save the district approximately $15K per day. These savings come from reduced costs in transportation, energy, teacher 'substitute days' and other personnel related costs. These days will be used for teacher training that is typically conducted either during the school day or after school hours; pulling teachers out of the classroom and/or compensating them for the additional time. The net result is an estimated additional savings of up to $200,000. These combined savings are being used to minimize the number of faculty and staff layoffs and keeping as many programs and services intact as possible.
Recognizing the loss of instructional time, building principals are taking a careful look at how they currently schedule students. Non-instructional activities that occur during the school day will be eliminated and/or greatly curtailed to reduce the actual loss of student/teacher contact time.
If we decreased the school year by 8 days, what does that bring the number of days students attend school to? How does this compare to other schools in Minnesota and throughout the country?
ReplyDeleteHow does saving $15k/day x 8 days cut equate to $200,000 saved? Do we really pay to train teachers 8 or more days per school year? That seems really high, compared to industry. Do our students really have 8 days of non-instructional time in the school year? If so, shame on us for not utilizing teacher-student time efficiently in the first place.
ReplyDeleteHolly, thank you for your post. The proposed reduction in the next school year is for one year only. If the board approves the recommended 8 days, it will reduce our school year for students to 168 days. The number of school days conducted by schools across the state varies. The state legislature passed minimum requirements this past year. The proposed calendar places our students in grades 9-12 essentially at the minimum. Our middle level students exceed the minimum by 4 days and our elementary students by approximately 10 days. We will need to modify the hours of our 1/2 day kindergarten program.
ReplyDeleteglqueen, thanks for posting. The savings that we anticipate by reducing our school year is approximately $120K not $200K. The latter figure is the amount of money that we spent last year for staff development activities; specifically teachers participating in what we call 'Professional Learning Communities.' This work is done after school hours and involves teachers coming together, and along with other activities, looking at student achievement information and aligning what is being taught in our classrooms with the gaps that are being found in the data. You mentioned industry comparisons, staff development is our opportunity to ensure we implement educational best practices throughout the district. It is our research and development and represents less than 2% of our entire budget. Changing standards and rising expectations are occuring so rapidly in our field today that it is truly difficult to keep up with sometimes conflicting forces.
ReplyDeleteYou also commented on the use of school time. We will attempt to be more efficient with the management of our students' learning and time on task. We will not be able to find enough time to make up for the lost days, but activities such as student pepfests, and classroom breaks will certainly be evaluated and reduced as deemed necessary. With planned days 'off' our hope is that parents will also use the time wisely and schedule things such as doctor appointments on these days rather than pulling their children out of school. Studies of schools that have gone to four-day weeks, have shown that overall student attendance has improved. So we hope that through a little collaborative planning, the overall loss of 'time on task' will be minimal.