The time is 1:55 p.m. on an average Thursday during the 2022-23 school year. Students are packing up their belongings to go home and enjoy their personal lives. Little did they know that during the 2023-24 school year things were not going to be the same.
This school year the Fort Osage school board voted to exchange Early Out Thursdays with Personal Development days. PD days replace early out Thursdays with a whole day of teacher development once a month where teachers and staff plan with one another, while students get the day off. Ninth grade principal Joseph Bedard feels that the new PD system might leave less time to meet with his team.
“I also worry about not being able to meet with my team on a weekly basis in order to stay on top of things.” Mr. Bedard said.
In the previous 22-23 school year students got 25 minutes off every Thursday making their classes shorter. Kori Webb, sophomore, feels that the new PD day allows for more time to complete school work,
“I disliked Early Out Thursdays because it did not give me enough time to finish up all my school work in all my classes and it gave me more work to do at home,” Webb said.
The weekly collaboration time gave teachers the opportunity to meet and discuss their plans for the following week. Mr. Rosenbach, a ninth and tenth grade English teacher misses the weekly collaboration time with his fellow teachers.
“I would plan more for the next week, collaborate with other teachers, and make sure everything I needed was ready for the upcoming week,” Rosenbach said.
As it is with all walks of life, not everyone will be satisfied with the changes. Some people are excited for the new PD days, as they are getting double the amount of time they would’ve gotten in a month last year. Others feel as though the Early Out Thursdays should have never been taken away because it gave them time to collaborate with each other on a weekly basis.
