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Posted: June 28, 2011

Wake school days won't get longer after all

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Raleigh, N.C. — The Wake County Public School System won't be extending its school day after all, a district spokesman said Tuesday.

Last week, the state Board of Education approved a measure to allow school systems to use five additional state-mandated school days for the 2011-12 school year for teacher training instead of academic instruction.

The move came after the General Assembly added the days as part of the new state budget, and local school districts expressed concerns about financial and scheduling implications for the upcoming year.

Wake schools had planned to ask the state Department of Public Instruction to waive the additional five days in exchange for extending the school day by 10 minutes.

Spokesman Michael Evans said that in light of the state board's decision, it is opting for the training.

The waiver only applies for the 2011-12 school year.

Web Editor: Kelly Gardner

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The way I understood the original demand for more student instruction, five teacher workdays (already on the schedule) would be converted to student instruction days. Now that the busing costs would be somewhat prohibitive, the suggested instruction days are reverting back to teacher workdays.

Teachers need that time at the end of grading periods to get ready for the next part of the teaching year. If they have a speaker come in for part of the day, that would benefit schools. If citizens really want to micro-manage their school teachers, they could demand to approve the program in advance. A lot of those "training" topics are handled internally.

Or you could just continue to demoralize the teaching profession until it withers away to nothing. That would please the folks for whom bad news about the schools is good news for their cause: privatizing education completely.

PurlsOfWisdom
June 29, 2011 12:38 p.m.

what's the point of more education when the private sector doesn't care about job creation in America and prefers to outsource to China, India and Singapore. Doesn't take too much education to be a Walmart Greeter or Hooters Waitress.

corey3rd
June 29, 2011 8:16 a.m.

@Heat: "Last week, the state Board of Education approved a measure to allow school systems to use five additional state-mandated school days for the 2011-12 school year for teacher training instead of academic instruction." It's not just Wake County, it is all school systems. No one is "off the hook".

lsmith4272001
June 28, 2011 7:29 p.m.

Isn't it funny how the teachers are going to get more education, but students will not? Who are we supposed to be educating anyway? M.O.M

Really? So as times change, demands change and the world itself is changing, how are kids going to be prepared for these changes if the teachers are not able and up to par to prepare them for the changes? If you had teachers teaching kid how to work on computers that were outdated you would have a fit saying you are not preparing them for the future, the real world. Why would a teacher NOT have to be trained or educated?

ksh33
June 28, 2011 7:23 p.m.

Mean Old Mom... your doctor, attorney and accountant have to maintain certifications, knowledge, etc. Why would you expect any less of our teachers?

jonnraleigh
June 28, 2011 7:19 p.m.

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