LIVERMORE FALLS — The 2018-19 school calendar approved by Regional School Unit 73 directors Thursday night is similar to this year, including late-arrival Wednesdays to allow teachers professional development time.

Several parents attended to express their concerns about a proposal to have 19 early release days during the school year for professional development for teachers, as opposed to late-arrival Wednesdays.

Parent Terri Norris said she was concerned about the proposed calendar taking a lot of hours of learning away from students.

“Throwing in all these other alternate days, as a parent who works, it seems like it would be a hard sell and a hard struggle for other parents.”

Board Chairwoman Denise Rodzen said she sympathized with the parents and welcomed their input.

“I want to make sure all voices are heard so we can get different opinions on the calendar,” she said.

Parent Linda Flagg said the half days of school would mean a lot of missed work time for parents. Day care would also be a problem, she said.

“I understand the need for more professional development time for teachers,” Flagg added.

Rodzen said one of the board’s student representatives thought randomly spaced early-release days would severely inconvenience parents and students, and suggested keeping late arrival Wednesdays.

“I was a big catalyst for the controversy,” Spruce Mountain Elementary School Principal Chris Hollingsworth said. “I was the one that came up with this calendar.”

He said in discussions with staff, a common theme was they wanted more time to work on professional development.

“I did not envision the controversy,” Hollingsworth said. “It was not my intent to create controversy.”

Board member Tammy Frost said that for children who have a hard time with scheduling, late starts to the school day are better. They get more quality education with more time in a day, she said.

“My own personal feeling is if it wasn’t broken, why are we trying to fix it?” Rodzen said.

She said keeping the schedule similar to this year’s aligns RSU 73 better with RSU 9’s schedule, which is important because RSU 73 sends students to Foster Career and Technical Education Center in Farmington. Also,  day care is not an easy thing to find and having early-release days would force parents to scramble to get day care for their children, she said.

In another matter, board member Doug DiPasquale asked what local contractors would have to do to bid on an energy efficiency project for RSU 73 school buildings.

Superintendent Kenneth Healey said they would have to contact Siemans, who did a recent energy audit for the school district.

bmatulaitis@sunmediagroup.net

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