The Arlington Heights School District 25 Board of Education rejected plans to increase the number of professional development days for teachers for the 2024-2025 school year due to what was considered a potential impact on families.
On a 6-1 vote at the Nov. 14 board meeting, board members said no to a plan which would have added seven, half-days for professional development to the academic calendar. Now, the professional development committee will go back to the drawing board to determine how to add these days without impacting families who would have to find child care or take leave from work to accommodate the time off school.
Board member Brian Cernigilia was the only one to support the plan as presented at the meeting.
Brian Kaye, assistant superintendent for personnel and planning, shared an extensive presentation with the board on the work of the committee since it was formed in June 2022. He said the need for more professional development arose during teacher contract negotiations and the committee spent a great deal of time reaching a consensus on a model they were hoping to gain board approval for.
He said the model, as presented at the meeting, would limit the impact of pulling staff out of the classroom and reduce the need for substitute teachers but provide additional professional development for content and curriculum planning that is necessary as the district adds a full-day kindergarten program next school year – and other new programs throughout all of the grades.
“We think adding these big changes to our system will require more time for professional development,” Kaye said.
He said the committee did explore other options, such as early release and late starts, to accommodate the preparation and training time but felt those changes would impact the community negatively.
“There is no stopping of learning for our staff,” Kaye said. “We are constantly asking our teachers to refine their practices and the only way to do that is to continue to provide professional development to provide better instructional strategies to improve our student outcomes. We need to provide time to make that happen.”
SD25 enrolls about 5,300 students across nine schools, in pre-K to eighth grade.
Board members recognized the additional days off would impact working families, with parents having to take two to three days off their jobs to accommodate the seven additional half days off.
Kaye said the committee plans to conduct a community survey to determine child care needs and connect with the Arlington Heights Park District to determine its child care capacity. He also told board members he anticipates teacher assistants and food service workers may be interested in additional student supervision for these half days to acquire additional hours.
Looking at a sample academic calendar provided by Kaye, board member Gina Faso said out of the 42 weeks of school, 64% of the time students would not have a full, five-day week of classroom time with the additional professional development time.
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“Sixty-four percent of the time not having a student in a full, five-day week has an incredible impact on families and on student learning because it changes the consistency of the model,” Faso said. “This is a really difficult decision. I think we need to find an alternative balance. It might not be in the best interests of our students.”
Elizabeth Owens-Schiele is a freelancer.