Additional professional learning days discussed

NEW LONDON – The New London Board of Education discussed the addition of three additional professional learning days for district staff who work with k-4 students to provide staff with more collaboration time to develop personal reading plans (PRP) for students who need such plans.
The three additional professional learning days were discussed by the board at a June 24 meeting. As part of the proposed professional learning days discussion, K-4 students would not attend school during the three additional days.
Tamela McCartney, director of Teaching and Learning for the School District of New London, told the board that the district’s current practice is to have its Act 20 assessment done by individuals outside the district, but who are paid by the district to provide the assessment. She added that when a student scores at a level that requires them to have an PRP, a reading interventionist writes those plans.
“We’ve done a lot of reflecting on how those plans are being tested by someone else and written by somebody else who isn’t the classroom teacher, who isn’t using that data to make decisions on a daily basis in the classroom,” McCartney said. “That classroom teacher needs to read somebody else’s plan and doesn’t understand maybe the why or the depths which that plan can be implemented.”
This has caused some struggles in the district regarding having enough time and resources for training its teachers on how to do that, McCartney said.

“With that in mind, at our May 26 Instructional Committee meeting, we discussed the need for supplemental in-person collaboration for our K-4 grade staff,” McCartney said.
McCartney said the committee is proposing that three times next school year, that K-4 students would stay home, while the teachers would be at school doing the PRP work and spending time on collaboration.
“Keep that in mind that those meetings are really difficult to have during the day if we’re consistently doing what’s best for kids throughout the building,” McCartney said.
By having three days in which K-4 students don’t attend school, district staff would be able to conduct those meetings, McCartney said.
She added that this would also allow teachers to write the plans for each student that needs one.
New London Superintendent Scott Bleck said it is not uncommon, for a variety of reasons, for high school students to not report to school “based on what the need is for a particular group.”
“We feel that that time would be valued for collaboration and individual personal reading plan, which would be developed for students that score in that bottom 20 percentile,” Bleck said.
Board Vice President Katie Batten asked if there were other times, such as during already scheduled professional learning days, that the collaboration could be done, adding that parents of K-4 students would need to plan for childcare for the three additional professional learning days.
McCartney said if the collaboration took place during already scheduled professional learning days, other things would need to be removed from those scheduled days.
“Then I’m concerned about what else we’re losing with those days,” McCartney said.
Batten said keeping K-4 students home, would send a mixed message to parent because the district has stressed the importance of students not missing school.
“I feel like this is just three days that the kids aren’t learning, but that is my opinion,” Batten said.
Board Treasurer Mark Grossman said he thinks that the work that would be accomplished by district staff during the three additional professional learning days would “far outweigh the missing days of school.”
“I think in the long run it’s going to create a lot of benefits,” Grossman said. “Like anything else, if you want to improve on something, there’s always some inconvenience that goes along with it.”
Batten said she likes the concept of the three additional days, but wondered if there were any other days to choose from.
“We’re really pushing attendance, so I struggle with this one a little,” Batten said.
Board Clerk Holly Schweitzer said she was surprised the teachers are not currently writing the PRPs for students. Because of that, she said allowing for three days during the school year for that to be done would be worth it.
Board member Andy Thorpe said he was “optimistic” that the three collaboration days would be beneficial.
Bleck said the district has more hours in its district calendar than is required by the state of Wisconsin, so the three additional days would not need to be made up.