Damakant Jayshi

Next year’s Wausau School calendar scraps independent learning days for students in favor of more professional development days for teachers.

The approved calendar does not yet list graduation day, but a date will be chosen before the board’s regular meeting in February, Wausau School Communications Coordinator Diana White told committee members. White said the calendar was prepared after hearing feedback from district staff and families.

The move to discard independent learning days, where students learn at home, requires adding four minutes to the school day beginning at the secondary level to meet Wisconsin Dept. of Public Instruction requirements. Adding minutes is not necessary at the elementary level. The change will be permanent once the Wausau School Board approves the recommendation of the Education/Operations Committee.

White said staff largely supported the some families had concerns over child care as a challenge they have to deal with. Those families suggested not having a home learning component during professional days for teachers, she said.

White said officials considered adding days at the end of the academic year but past feedback from teachers and parents suggested that choice was not ideal. The calendar also has three snow days built into the schedule.

Board member Pat McKee asked if those four additional minutes would be counted as instructional time. White said yes, but other board members sounded skeptical.

Board Secretary Karen Vandenberg said those minutes are not actually instructional minutes even though they could be counted as such. “It does bother me a little bit to pretend that four minutes at the beginning of the day is an increase in instructional time.”

Board Vice President Lance Trollop disagreed. The four minutes might not make a huge difference, just like independent learning days were ineffective. “The independent learning days took away professional learning from teachers,” he said, adding that they had to prepare for the students’ learning and found that it was often not followed.

Board President James Bouche said that middle and high school level students are more impacted than secondary level if they miss a day of instruction. He pointed out that there are 11 professional days listed in the calendar. The calendar has seven professional development days during the school year and four in August before the first day of the school starts in September.

Bouche also expressed concern about the fewer contact days between teachers and students, with a decrease from 185 to 173 at the secondary level.

White said the administration considered lost days and snow days when they prepared the calendar. Those additional four days each day would exceed the DPI instructional time requirement, she said.

White told Wausau Pilot that principals will determine how the extra four minutes per day will be used.