CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Race to the Top, the massive federal education overhaul for Tennessee, is bringing changes to Bradley County classrooms, including six early dismissals on the first Wednesdays of the month.
Elementary schools will dismiss at 12:30 p.m. on those first Wednesdays; middle and high schools will dismiss at 1:20 p.m.
Bradley County School Board members were told Thursday that teachers still will be working after the students leave on those days. They will have structured hours of professional development instruction.
Terri Murray, supervisor of federal programs, said “the main emphasis of Race to the Top is on teacher quality.”
Murray said a panel of parents plus school administrators and teachers recommended the early dismissals instead of late starts on those Wednesdays. The afternoon sessions for teachers are designed to give them instructions on how to use the data also required by Race to the Top to benefit children.
Murray said offering staff development within a school day has no conflict with after-school events.
Dan Glasscock, secondary education supervisor, said another consideration was cost. Paying for the extra days of professional development training for more than 600 teachers would carry a very heavy cost.
Sheena Newman, elementary education supervisor, said, “There are two ways to build great schools. One of those is to hire well, and the other is to continue to improve the teachers you have.”
Board Chairman David Kelley said concerns he hears from residents about early Wednesdays is a misunderstanding that the decision was made by one or two administrators who don’t understand parental needs for arranging day care and other issues.
“So you are saying the teachers need to get into their hands the information they need in order to teach our children how to develop higher skills in thinking and this is a budgetary thing because we don’t have the money for extra hours,” Kelley said to Glasscock. “And that this is mandated outside our own school system.”
“Most of us are parents and we don’t take any of these decisions lightly,” said County Schools Director Johnny McDaniel.
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