Worland school board mulls early release on Fridays

WORLAND — Last year the Washakie County School District No. 1 board briefly considered early release on Fridays as they began developing the 2018-2019 calendar for Worland schools. The idea seems to have gained interest this year as work begins on the 2019-2020 calendar.

During Monday’s board meeting, Superintendent David Nicholas said he would like the board to consider early release on Friday’s for next year with early release at 12:45 p.m. He emphasized that early release would be for students only. Teachers and staff would still be required to work the full day.

He said last year the early release was tabled because Worland High School had late start on Wednesdays.

“That was working pretty well but that has evolved. I think we’re ready to bring to you a discussion about early release on Friday,” Nicholas said. “The thing all the teachers are looking for is collaborative time, time they can spend together in planning, working on curriculum, working on student learning, different strategies and looking at data. For that time to be common is helpful to the district.”

He said he has had business manager Jack Stott look at the numbers to make sure the that the days and minutes requirements work regarding student-teacher contact.

“Why Friday afternoons, it’s the only one that works best for families,” Nicholas said.

He said he would like to bring a few options for the calendar to the board but have one include early release Friday.

“I do think early release Friday is worthy of a good discussion,” Nicholas said.

Trustee Dean Dupree asked about how many high school students are gone on any given Friday afternoon due to activities. Activities Director Mark Mortimer said a best guess would be between 85-100, just in athletics.

Trustee Anna Venable asked if they went to early release if they could schedule all games on Friday or Saturday.

Mortimer said, “It would be nice for our schedule, but the thing we run into, we have three activity busses that can go on Friday and other people’s schedules don’t quite work out.”

He said they schedule close games, including Powell and Cody on Tuesday and Thursday and longer trips are on Friday and Saturday.

Venable said she likes the idea of early release.

Trustee Joe Bishop said he likes the idea to allow for collaborative time.

Trustee David Tommerup asked how many coaches are gone and Mortimer said about 10-14 could be gone during the winter sports season, which would be the most. Venable noted early release would help the district with expenses because they would not need substitutes to fill in for those coaches in the classroom.

The elementary principals said they would adjust their current collaborative times to work with an early release with West Side Principal Bruce Miller, noting he may keep the current collaboration times and focus on other professional development on Friday afternoons.

Trustee Don Bryant asked about families and what they do with younger children who cannot be left home alone.

Curriculum Director Jody Rakness said she works with the Worland Youth Learning Center and the center makes sure it is open on professional development days, and they could work to have them available on early release.

She added that while the learning center does not serve 100 percent of the district students it is an option.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

Nicholas said other things to consider for the upcoming calendar included one suggestion for the district to set spring break at a specific time every year, for example, every year it would be the last week of March, or first week of April. He said the suggestion to him was this would help families plan vacations in advance.

Another consideration is whether to have professional development days at the start and end of the school year like they did this year, with fewer during the course of the school year.

Venable said if the district opts for early release then she would like a change in the Christmas vacation proposal that has students coming back on Thursday, Jan. 2. “Coming back just for a day and a half seems like wasted time,” she said.

OTHER BUSINESS

In other business the board:

•Approved four coaching positions including Shawn Ivie for head indoor track coach at WHS, pending completion of the certification.

•Approved hiring new part-time and one full-time paraeducators.

•Heard a report on the high school science trip to the Galapagos Islands. The trip was featured in the Northern Wyoming Daily News on June 30.

•Were introduced to new music teacher Frank Harding of Indiana.

•Received the early enrollment figures of 1,257 for August, down from the start of the year last year at 1,270.

•Began review of the district board policies. Nicholas said he will be bringing a recommendation to change one policy. The district had been requiring staff members to pay for fingerprinting background checks but found out last year that state statute requires districts to pay for the checks.

•Approved the school improvement strategy. Nicholas said districts are required now to the Wyoming Department of Education school improvement and accreditation process, whereas in the past they contracted with AdvancEd.

Nicholas said, “Our best school improvement is to pursue professional learning communities and the RTI [response to intervention] process and put that inside the WDE.”

•Approved the out-of-state trip to Yellowstone for high school students. Dupree said he would like to reiterate previous comments that these trips need to be tracked to ensure the district does not go over the cap of $605,000 for transportation costs.

The cap on transportation funding was put in place by the Wyoming Legislature while an interim study is completed this year.

Stott said it is unknown what the State Legislature will do regarding transportation funding next year. “We’ll really need to start looking at every trip as if it is out-of-pocket, because once we exceed that cap, every extra dollar is not reimbursed,” he said.

The board asked if the administration could provide some tracking to present to the board each month on what has been used for transportation/mileage.