School board could choose late-start or early-release plan Tuesday

District officials estimate an after-school professional development plan would cost the Carson City School District more than $295,000 for the 2005-06 school year.

The idea was suggested at the April 12 school board meeting by parents upset about the district's plan to include professional development for teachers by starting school 90 minutes late 15 Wednesdays of the year.

Trustee John McKenna, who said he didn't want time taken out of the teaching day, asked for a price tag for doing the professional development after hours.

"There are ways to find the money if it's that important," he said. "We may end up with fewer employees anyway when the guys down the street (Legislature) are done with us. If they're going to do that anyway, why not look at all the options?"

Teachers must be paid for time worked past 7.5 hours each day. The district, which just released the figures, estimates a cost of $13,133 per hour based on an hourly rate of $23.93 for 548 certified employees.

For the 22.5 hours of professional-development time scheduled under the late-start plan, the price tag to switching after school comes to slightly more than $295,000.

"When you have schools in need of improvement you have to do a professional development plan," said Superintendent Mary Pierczynski. "We would love to not use school time, but who has that kind of money?"

The district's professional-development planning committee, which includes parents of students in high, middle and elementary schools in addition to district staff, is looking at alternatives to the late-start plan and to paying teachers extra for after-school hours.

Those ideas will be given by Mike Watty, associate superintendent of education, at the school board meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Sierra Room of the Community Center.

"Some of the feedback we're getting from parents is that early-out is easier than a late start in the morning because of the child-care issues," Pierczynski said.

An early-release alternative plan would fall on the same Wednesdays proposed for the late-start schedule: the second and fourth of each month, except for weeks that are not already full weeks. Fifteen of the 19 Wednesdays of the year would be early release, the same number of days that would be late start.

Each of the district's schools would let out 90 minutes early, a different schedule than the minimum-release days used for testing or parent-teacher conferences, which is a release two-and-a-half hours early.

Ultimately, a decision does not need to be made until the fall, Pierczynski said.

"The reason we're trying to get this settled early is we want families to know exactly what's happening, so they can make plans accordingly," she said. "That was the reason for starting this in March and April. Of course, the committee has been meeting all year."

The committee is also looking at a plan to use the five institute days allowed by the state each year. The difficulty with that, Pierczynski said, is those days may not meet the requirements of ongoing development, and the days take away time from learning.

"The law says kids have to go to school 180 days. If you do five institute days kids, in essence, go for 175 days," Pierczynski said. "If you multiply that by 7.5 hours that equates to 35-36 hours of professional development time. Of course, we're asking for 22.5 hours because every minute teachers are out of the class, the kids aren't being taught."

If a late-start or early-release professional -development plan is approved by the school board, the district would not use any institute days during the school year, except for one day at Carson High School, for a speaker scheduled for March 2007, according to Pierczynski.

n Contact reporter Maggie O'Neill at moneill@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.