Fair Grove Schools to Re-Adjust School Calendar for 2015-2016

Starting next year, Fair Grove Students district wide will see changes in their school schedule. A slight change will be made to the 2015-2016 school calendar and possibly years to come, as the school board agreed on Wednesday, January 21st, to now make Mondays of each week a late start.

“Research tells us that in order to increase student achievement teacher need to work collaboratively and systemically allowing for opportunities to collectively research and review data, as well as review curriculum and instruction,” stated Dr. John Link, Superintendent of the Fair Grove School District. The move to late starts on Mondays, will allow faculty a 50 minute window to work in vertical and horizontal groups in order to align instruction and become more efficient in their teachings. “We hope that this will allow our staff members to work in a more aligned creative environment that should make a positive academic impact immediately. By regularly reviewing curriculum and data we should be able to prioritize learning for all students,” said Link.

English and Yearbook teacher Stacy Beller says that, “In this 50 minutes, we will collaborate as teachers to discuss the needs of students and get a further understanding of how to present certain topics.” Beller also commented that meeting vertically with teachers will benefit the students by saying, “This will help us look at grade level standards, and further understand what the state wants us to teach and to make sure the students learn what they need.”

Busses will run approximately 20 minutes later than usual days. Breakfast for students will still be offered, with breakfast also starting 20 minutes later than usual. School will begin promptly at 8:30 every Monday, and end at the regular time of 3:00 pm. Also, if parents still need to drop their kids off early on these Monday mornings, supervision will be provided for these kids with active learning lessons at the Elementary and Middle School levels until school starts.

As of right now, it is undecided whether class periods will be shorter on these days, or if students will not have their advisory time. Advisory is the 15 minutes given to students at the beginning of their first hour for study time and homework. The board is set to make the decision a little later on, detailing where the time will come from. Regarding the calendar as a whole, Christmas and Spring breaks for students will still be protected in order for students and faculty members to still plan vacations, but these can always change subject to snow days.

Students themselves are also excited about the news of the schedule changes, as Junior Brandon Hart commented, “I’ll get to sleep in more, and after a long weekend of staying up later, it’ll help to have time to adjust to heading back to school for the week.” Junior Skylar Kensinger also stated that, “In the mornings it’s hard to focus during the first few hours of class, especially after coming back from the weekend. This, in the long run, will hopefully help me with my studies.”

As of right now, no further changes are foreseen to be made to the calendar for the years to come. “We have developed a productive calendars that establishes and protects teacher professional growth and student academic success,” added Link. Link also says that its slight schedule adjustment to the Elementary, Middle School and High School will hopefully be a change for the better at Fair Grove, and just like the addition of weighted grades, it’s another step towards stronger academics for the school.