PORT TOWNSEND — Parents of Grant Street Elementary School students may see their children home two hours earlier every Wednesday next fall.
In an effort to bring teaching and learning in line with new Washington state standards, the school administration is considering several schedule changes.
“The key change that the parents are going to feel is this weekly early dismissal every Wednesday,” said Steven H. Finch, Grant Street Elementary principal.
Under the proposed plan, as students go home two hours earlier once a week, teachers are in in-service training, spending that time making sure that school material is being taught in a uniform manner.
“The idea is for the staff to come together and say we know that our kids can do better,” Finch said.
“Every teacher has been implementing the curriculum as they saw it fit. Now we will work it out together.”
The school calendar already contains nine yearly dismissals throughout the year.
“It is difficult for parents to plan for those nine days,” Finch said, “and now they will have the opportunity to have more time with their kid every week.”
Better communication
Some teachers believe that the move to establish weekly teachers’ workshops will spur better communication among them and benefit education overall.
“I see it as an essential part of the school improvement plan,” said first-grade teacher Mary Sepler.
Sepler, who has taught for 15 years, said she has been working on the school schedule analysis for the past several years.
In the course of the improvement survey, Grant Street administrators contacted 14 other elementary schools seen as most successful.
All of the contacted schools, except for one, stated that communication among teachers is an important piece of good education, said Finch.
After-school activities
To reduce parents’ inconvenience, the school is considering adopting after-school activities such as a swimming program.
The school is attempting to recruit local businesses and organizations to bring in other opportunities for the school’s 270 students to fill vacant time after school on Wednesdays.