Change in school schedule up for vote

A Carson City School District plan to add two professional development hours the second and fourth Wednesday of every month means a late start for every district school on those days.

For the district's six elementary schools, starting times will be at 10 a.m. For Eagle Valley Middle School, Carson Middle School and Carson High School, the day will begin at 9:30 a.m., with bus schedules adjusted accordingly.

"To have those professional training days twice a month is desperately needed," said Carson High School Principal Fred Perdomo. "You have to schedule time to be able to do this during the regular day."

The Carson City School Board of Trustees will vote on the new professional development plan at Tuesday's meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. in the Sierra Room of the Community Center, 851 E. William St. The meeting is open to the public.

Under the proposed schedule, 17 Wednesdays of the 2005-06 school year schedule will be late starts. Wednesdays that fall during shortened weeks will be regular days. For example, the fourth Wednesday in November is the 23rd, but because the week is already modified due to the Thanksgiving holiday, that Wednesday would be a full day.

Under the plan, schools will still let out at the same time, except possibly for Carson High School, which could be looking at a release several minutes later than it's current time at 1:55 p.m. Although nothing is finalized, Perdomo and his staff plans to add 15 minutes of teaching throughout the school day, possibly by staring zero period earlier and also by removing minutes from the nutrition period. The idea is to make up for minutes taken away by the development time.

Other schools in the district exceed the average daily number of minutes required and do not have this problem.

"They haven't figured it out yet, I don't think," said Carson High freshman Brittany Bacon. "I don't care if they shorten nutrition period, if I could be able to eat a bit in my class."

Many people picking up students at Seeliger Elementary and Carson High schools Thursday afternoon expressed little concern about the late starts, saying there were other family members to pick students up or older siblings to watch younger students. The late start did concern Seeliger parent Nancy Panozzo.

"I have to be work at 8:30 right now and that's what time school starts, so we're right there right now," she said. "I have five minutes to get to work. I have no idea what I'd do. I'd probably have to take her to work with me for an hour."

The reason for the new professional development schedule is that a number of theories say that teacher collaboration is the best way to improve teaching, according to Sam Santillo, Carson Middle School principal, who is leading a committee for the changes.

"Professional development used to be called drive-by professional development," he said. "Teachers would come to sites and stay there and we'd give them ideas to use and tell them to use it, but there never was any accountability for it."

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

Go to the vote

What: Carson City School Board meeting

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Sierra Room of the Community Center, 851 E. William St.

Information: 283-2000