The Cañon City School District approved a new calendar for the 2019-2020 school year Monday during its regular meeting.
Completing a long process that started near the beginning of the school year, the board, in a 4-1 vote, approved a new schedule that will result in Fridays alternating between early release or no school.
Lloyd Harwood, board vice president, was the only one voting no, citing a preference for a four-day week calendar.
“As a school board member, my job is what is in the best interest of the child and looking at the emotional social (needs), feeding the kids, also looking at they need good quality teachers and to retain and attract teachers I felt this, after going through everything, was in the best interest of the child,” said board secretary Mary Kay Evans.
On early release days, staff will be given two hours for professional development and the schedule shortens the school year by six days and extends the school day by 10 to 15 minutes depending on the school.
“As a former classroom teacher in this district, I think that this proposal is not only the most innovative calendar I have ever seen, but it provides so many professional development opportunities for teachers,” said Assistant Secretary/Treasurer Robin Reeser.
The calendar was designed to attract and retain high-quality staff in a region surrounded by districts that have converted to a four-day week.
“There is a teacher shortage,” Harwood said. “It is important for us to attract and retain quality teachers. No doubt, we’re competing with every district around us getting more applications, people more interested in going there because of that four-day school week.”
The district will monitor different aspects that are affected by the change in the calendar, such as juvenile crime rates, teacher and student attendance, teacher applications and academic achievement, along with making sure professional development time is being used properly. This will be done to see the impact in the district by the change in the calendar.
Public comment at the Feb. 25 school board meeting saw some concerns regarding special education needs on “e-learning” days, which happen on days that school is canceled, because of weather, resulting in students using Chromebooks to complete assignments.
The district would use their compensatory services program to meet those needs or a possibility could be to pay special education staff to come in on a no-school Friday to help those students.
The compensatory services program is a summer program used to help special education students who miss extended amounts of school because of health reasons.
Another concern at the public comment meeting that was addressed was the concern of supervision on the Fridays there is no school. Superintendent George Welsh touched on meetings with local agencies to help with that issue, such as Boys and Girls Club of Fremont County, the Cañon City Area Recreation and Park District and the Fremont Adventure Recreation.
“I feel we have made good headway with (those) organizations,” Welsh said.
Chris Graham: 719-2767648, cgraham@Cañoncitydailyrecord.com