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District leaders are asking the public to weigh in on three school calendar options aimed at creating more time in the school year for teacher planning and professional development.
After receiving feedback last Wednesday from the school board, Teton County School District assistant superintendent Scott Crisp rolled out three calendar options at a Zoom meeting Thursday.
Along with pitching an early release idea on Fridays heading into the 2025-26 school year, Crisp is offering up the option of a later start on Mondays.
He is also presenting a third option of extending the school year in an effort to create additional in-service days for educators throughout the year. In-service days are planning days for teachers and students have the day off from school. Extending the school year would mean starting a week before Labor Day and ending school around the third week of June.
Crisp said at the Wednesday school board meeting that modifying the school day wasn’t creating a “half-day” on Friday. But the pitch for early release on Fridays would reduce the school day from an average of seven hours down to four hours — give or take 30 minutes depending on bussing schedules.
“I feel that we have an opportunity, but also a challenge to communicate to our parents and our community,” newly minted vice chair of the board Stephan Abrams said regarding the new schedule.
Abrams added that it is challenging for the district to not feel like a “day care” as it considers the impacts a new school calendar has on working parents.
“But in a way, it is a day care,” he said.
Last January, district leadership scrapped the proposed idea of a one-hour early release for kindergarten-through-fifth-grade classes on Wednesdays. Public pushback coupled with nonprofit community stakeholders raised the alarm citing a lack of available child care support.
Crisp was clear that he and district leadership were empathetic to the impacts that a school calendar change can have on families and students. He also acknowledged the school board’s directive to create more and better professional development options for local educators.
