By Jackie Pollack
October 3rd was the first day of the newly implemented Professional Learning Early Release Day (PLRD). On the first and third Wednesday of every month, students are let out of school an hour early. Students are released at 1:35 and students with a 9th period are released at 2:20. According to the IHS website, the new scheduling was enforced to supply the faculty extra time for “professional learning and curriculum development.” This system will be in place until the end of May.
It is no surprise the students are in favor of the new scheduling and extra hour out of school.
Sophomore, Maddie Monness, said, “It was a very good day that had a lot of good benefits to it. I was able to go home earlier and complete my homework faster and I had time to go to the varsity girls soccer homecoming game.”
Some teachers also believe PLRD can be beneficial to the school’s educational program.
Teacher, David Whitehead, said, “in concept it’s an amazing idea. I think as long as there are relevant activities and learning sessions, teachers are going to be completely in favor. It gets dicey when there are things that are not transferable to your classroom and that’s where I think sometimes [teachers] will lose people.”
Other teachers, are not too fond of the new system.
After the first PLRD concluded,I asked three teachers to explain what activities they did and what they thought of them. However, all three teachers shook their heads and declined to respond.
Additionally, students have some suggestions to improve PLRD.
Sophomore Nick Papapanou said, “It would be nicer if the one hour off was in the beginning of the day because you could get a little more sleep.”
Ian Schwam, a sophomore, added, “It gives a lot of free time where kids just don’t have anything to do. From the time of 1:30 to around 3:30 when sports start, that’s two hours of unaccounted time. But I would prefer the [early release] on Fridays so I could get the weekend started a little bit earlier.”
Professional Learning Early Release Day will hopefully become a profitable experience for the teachers as it has for the students.
