CARIBOU, Maine — RSU 39 Superintendent, Susan White, presented school board members with a preliminary school calendar for 2015-16 during a March 4 board meeting. Her calendar included five early release days, which caused some concern with board members.
“We have historically talked about [reducing early release days] and this is the largest amount of early release days I have seen in quite a while. And the point was to get more workshop days and less early release days. I feel with early release days the educational value to the students is greatly diminished,” said board member Kent Forbes.
White addressed the need for the early release days and said those days are to help teachers collaborate and prepare for the mandatory transition to proficiency-based learning.
“We’re moving slowly. We’re trying to be very methodical and very thoughtful. It’s huge — it’s huge for kids, it’s huge for teachers, and we want to be sure we’re crossing our Ts and dotting our Is, and we’re picking away at it,” White said.
White spoke about the transformational change the proficiency-based learning model will bring to RSU 39.
“There’s legal, and there’s statute requirements we have to meet. We’ve applied and have been given an extension so that we’ll be graduating students in 2021, according to standards based as opposed to the law which was originally 2018,” White said.
Teachers have a lot on their plates, she said. They must prepare for a new system of assessments, a new teacher evaluation system, and proficiency-based education.
“Those are three huge initiatives for our teachers and they’re in the trenches every day working hard with kids. It is difficult to find that time and those chunks of time where we can have real specific work that people are working on and are collaborating. We’re working hard to find that meaningful time and no one on the board says that time isn’t needed. It’s a balancing act and how do we find it?” White said.
Forbes and board member John Sjostedt were visibly concerned with what consequences the early release days would have on students. Forbes said he understood the transition to proficiency-based learning is a large undertaking, but he would like to see teachers find the time they need without the result of an early release day.
“My concern is about the educational impact to the students. It’s a balancing act, and at the end of the day we have to make sure our kids are educated,” Forbes said.
White said RSU 39 is playing by the rules, and wants to do it in a way that supports staff and students as they go.
“Teachers are working in the evenings, early in the mornings, on the weekends, on vacations, and in the summer because they’re dedicated. And we’re fortunate, in RSU 39, we have those people who’re going to do that. When we can find ways to try and find them chunks of time we like to try to do that, but again we balance the impact on kids,” White said.
According to White, there were no early release days on the 2013-14 school calendar. The board ultimately agreed to send out the 2015-16 calendar with three early release days as opposed to the initial proposed five.
