Melrose Students Could See Some Even Earlier Dismissals

MELROSE, MA — In a school year when students' time with teachers is at an unprecedented premium, the superintendent is proposing releasing students even earlier in some already shortened days in order to get what teachers say is much-needed planning time.

Superintendent Julie Kukenberger during Tuesday night's School Committee meeting pitched the plan: Eighteen additional early-release days between elementary and middle school students — all on Fridays — in which dismissals would be pushed ahead an hour.

The School Committee voted to table the proposal in a 5-2 vote. (Ed O'Connell and Liz DeSelm were the dissenting votes.) The discussion will be held at a later date.

Kukenberger said the proposal was to afford teachers more time to put together "high-quality materials;" First-grade teachers have told the superintendent they are taking 30-35 hours per week to prepare on top of in-person learning.

"In order to make sure that this work that we're asking of our teachers — this high quality of teaching and learning — is scalable and sustainable, we felt it was essential to provide more common planning time for our educators," Kukenberger said. "This calendar does that."

Under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, teachers are afforded 10 early-release days in middle school and eight in elementary school. The proposal would add eight early-release days to middle school and 10 to elementary school. There are eight early-release days at the high school, and none would be added.

Early-release days would see elementary school dismissals move up from 1-1:20 to noon-12:20 and secondary school dismissals go from 1:45-2 to 12:45-1. They would be scattered across several Fridays. See the proposed schedule below.

Kukenberger acknowledged the proposal was an added strain on many families already trying to work out pandemic-ruined schedules.

"Knowing that adding additional early-release days would pose another layer of inconvenience to families, we're not unaware of that," she said. "But in full transparency we're really trying to put everything in balance."

School Committee member Jennifer Razi-Thomas, who proposed tabling the discussion, thought the emphasis needed to be on students being in school.

"I really want to pay attention to what the kids need and I think what the kids need is as much time as possible with teachers for as long as possible this year," she said.

That echoed what some parents have been saying. One parent during public comment called the proposal "outrageous and absurd," and called on the School Committee to take a stand for the kids.

"Our school kids are being put last in line, and I know that this is much much bigger than you guys," Molly Baab said. "I know that the president of this country has abandoned his responsibility as a leader and I know Charlie Baker has had only half-hearted efforts at providing you the resources to run a reasonable school district. And yet it's still up to you guys whether you're going to take that half-heartedness and pass it down the line to our kids or not. And that appears to be what we're doing."

But Kukenberger said it's critical for teachers to be able to collaborate and work together in this most challenging year. As it stands, teachers have only an hour after dismissal for prep time — and 20 minutes of that is their lunch.

"One of the things we are very conscious of and intentional about is ensuring that there is equity and access to the curriculum no matter what learning model is the best and right fit for your students at this time," she said. "These common planning days are essential for our teachers to work together ... but for them to do sustained, meaningful planning 40 minutes every day really isn't gonna do it."

Grades PreK-8

• October 23
• December 4 and December 11
• January 29
• February 5
• March 5 and March 26
• April 30
• May 21
• June 11
• October 30

District-wide; Grades PreK-12:

• November 20
• December 18
• January 8
• February 26
• March 19
• April 16
• May 14

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of early-release days being added to the schedule.