Denver Public Schools may switch to five early-release days for teacher training next school year, moving away from the controversial late-start days that vexed parents so much this year.
The school board will vote on proposed calendars for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years during Thursday’s regular meeting, which also features time for public comment.
The biggest proposed change involves the 15 hours reserved for teacher training that was agreed to in contract negotiations last year.
This school year, the district is scattering five days throughout the calendar in which classes start three hours late.
The three late-start days that have already occurred generated a cascade of complaints from working parents, who have to find child care in the morning.
The district now wants to switch to early releases for those days.
“We felt it was more friendly to families,” said Joe Sandoval, director of educational services, who has developed the calendar for eight years.
Seventy-four percent of parents, 69 percent of students and 75 percent of employees surveyed after the first late-start day said they would prefer early releases instead.
The complex schedules must include a state-mandated allotment of instructional time — 1,080 hours for secondary schools and 990 hours for elementary schools — and negotiated professional development time.
Teachers also receive three professional development days, four and a half days for teacher planning and four days for assessments.
In total, Denver students will be in school 172.5 days and teachers will be on the job 184 days.
Thirty district schools also have recurring early-release days or late-start days for teacher training or planning.
Board vice president Michelle Moss questioned why those recurring release days are necessary.
“How are we as a district evaluating the use of that time?” Moss asked. “High schools are having two-hour releases every week, losing 10 hours of instruction a month, almost 100 hours every year. We haven’t evaluated whether that time is effectively spent.”
Sandoval said those schools are banking time, making it up later. For example, he said, Manual High starts an hour later on Tuesdays and Thursdays but extends its dismissal on those days.
“They have 16 more days than is required for instruction,” he said.
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
