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District 300 to seek parents' input on school schedule changes

Community Unit District 300 parents will get an opportunity to weigh in on two preferred options for changing school schedules districtwide this fall.

Officials plan to survey parents this month to determine which option - maintaining late start/early release or switching all schools to an early release model - they would support. The survey method has not been announced.

Officials have said the change is needed to allow more time for teacher collaboration and training starting next school year.

The district's elementary schools now get 15 days of early release, while the middle and high schools have 15 days of late starts, with two teacher institute days overall. It's a way for teachers to stay up-to-date on best practices, skills and teaching strategies.

With the current schedule, teachers are being pulled out of the classroom an additional eight to 10 days and parents have objected to having too many interruptions.

After reviewing several options, administrators prefer either reducing the number of late start/early release days to 10 - elementary schools would maintain early release on the same days middle and high schools have late start - or moving elementary and secondary schools to a 10-day early release schedule.

"Both options support our needs and minimize the number of disruptions," Superintendent Fred Heid said.

Officials also have considered reducing the number of training days to eight, but determined that would not allow enough time for collaboration.

"We are required to have four days for report card development so eight days only allows really four additional days," Heid said. "We would have to work to accommodate our training needs beyond that."

District 300 still would have to allow teachers to attend either half-day or full-day training using rotating substitute teachers to fill in where needed.

"We could pursue after-school (training). There are costs associated, but those are manageable," Heid said, adding the district also could expand its summer institutes for teachers.

The school board will review the preferred options and parents' response to the survey at its June 14 meeting before adopting the calendar for next school year.

District 300 considers schedule change to allow more teacher training

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