School Board Debates Professional Development Days

The snow may be gone, but its effects are still being felt by those involved in the town's school district.

School was cancelled eight days this winter because of storms, and because of that school will not end this year until June 27. But, because of those days off, teachers have fallen behind in professional development training.

After students were off for days in January because of the snow, the district cancelled a planned professional development day in order to give the kids more instructional classroom time before they took the Connecticut Mastery Tests last month. Now administrators are asking the to help make up that time by making the last six days of school half-days for students in order to allow teachers to spend the rest of those days in development.

It wouldn't affect the schedule at because those days are already half-days for final exams, Supt. of Schools Fran Rabinowitz said, but it would change the schedule for the elementary schools and .

"It really is needed for time for professional development," said Asst. Supt. Marie Jordan-Whitney. "It is not going to cost any additional money and we will stagger it so that the quality is really top notch."

The Hamden PTA Council has endorsed the proposal, and the district will meet the number of yearly instructional hours required by the state, Rabinowitz said.

"It is always a very difficult decision when you are talking about instructional time and training time," she said. "I felt very strongly in January about being able to give back instructional time -- that time was very, very important.

"I worry about the child care issues and know they are very important," she said, "but I know this time is of value also."

Not all Board of Education members thought that was a good plan, though, when presented with the proposal at its monthly meeting Tuesday.

"There's something about taking all these days and cutting them in half that sends a funny message," said board secretary John Keegan. "A half day is not a productive day and absenteeism goes through the roof.

"There's no dispute in the value of teacher training, but it is necessary to destroy the last six days of the year?" he asked. "We are basically saying we can chop them up because they are not necessary and that's a funny message that we don't need to begin with."

"That is an awful lot of instructional time to give us," said board member Myron Hul. "I'm still not convinced it is ok -- no one has shown me the benefit of professional development time quantitatively, so I know it's working."

The last days of the school year should be as productive as those at the beginning of the year, Hul said. 

If the half days aren't utilized, Jordan-Whitney said, then teachers will have to be pulled out of classrooms during May and June for the training.

"We want to avoid that," Rabinowitz said, "because that is a real loss of time for instruction and teachers hate it."

Much of the training is about changes to the curriculum that teachers need to be well versed in by the time school starts in September, she said, so giving them the information the last days of the year allows them to take it home for the summer to go over it.

Some board members suggested having teachers come in for the last three days of June for professional training, but that would cost the district extra since their contract runs out on June 27. Teachers are required to work 186 days a year and anything beyond that must be negotiated with the union.

Whatever is decided, that decision needs to be made soon, Rabinowitz said.

"Parents need to know in advance," she said.

"A number of parents are concerned about the hardship it will put on them to accommodate the half days," board member Lesley DeNardis said. 

Student representative Sara Winnick said the Hamden High School National Honor Society would be willing to run an after-school program at the elementary schools to allow students to stay at the schools for the entire school day.

The board did not take any action on the proposal, instead opting to hold off until its May meeting to act on it.