How will Wednesday early dismissals impact you?

As you have probably heard by now, Wake County Public Schools have decided to release students one hour early each Wednesday to provide teachers with time for collaboration during the school day.

For teachers, logistically, this could be a terrific help. It gives them the time to really focus and share ideas in professional learning teams during the school day. Teachers can share best practices, standardize departmental grading practices, develop new ideas, determine focus areas, etc.

The county knows that this time will be scrutinized by the public so they are emphasizing to all principals the importance of making sure ALL teachers utilize this time. Since teachers seem to have fewer and fewer work days and have less and less time to collaborate with colleagues, this helps solve that problem. Let's not forget the unused furlough time that must ONLY be used during non-school hours (unprotected work days).

But what is the price to the parents in the community? What about daycare issues? What about the extra hour kids have - will they utilize it productively or is it one more hour that kids are at risk?

I'm interested to see how this plays out and, of course, I'm interested to hear your opinion. Good luck to you all this school year!

What are your thoughts on Wake County Public Schools' student reassignment and diversity initiatives?

This seems to be the most touchy subject in the Wake County area these days. So I'm interested to hear what others think about it. It's difficult for me because I used to teach in a near 100% free and reduced lunch environment in Washington DC. I always thought, if we could just bring some of those kids to a school that had resources and also a diverse population (racially and socioeconomically), it could make a world of difference.

On the other hand, I don't know how I would feel if one of my daughters was assigned to a school miles away (especially if there is another school closer) simply because there is a need to achieve a pre-determined school demographic percentage.

I do believe there is a benefit to those in lower socioeconomic areas (and I wish there was a conclusive study one way or the other) but also believe that families impacted by diversity initiatives sometimes pay too high a price for this.

What are your thoughts? (I understand this is an emotionally charged issue for some....)