001Good evening. I now call to order session for the Lake School District governing board, April 2nd, 2026. We will now have a moment a moment of silent pray. All right. Item 2.1. Item 3.1 student achievement. We want to thank all of you for being being here this evening for a special work session as we look at early release states. This is a discussion that the governing board is taking very serious. We understand that there's a lot of different opinions to liberty for everybody. And so we're here tonight, but also from you have an opportunity to speak to this agenda and your ideas for all of us. student achievement. Thank you for your patience for this last week and your received numerous emails from parents and staff. >> Good evening, President Rose, members of the board.
002would like to provide some context regarding early release dates and share the process of recommendation. In 2014, following a failed override election, the district reduced full year elementary specials art and PE to 12 rotations. This change resulted in a 23 reduction in elementary teacher prep time. release days were implemented as a cost neutral solution to restore dedicated planning time for teachers and preserve instrual quality. To support families with students at multiple school sites, the district adopted a uniform early release schedule across all school levels. Currently, most elementary teachers receive between 45 and 60 minutes of planning on Mondays, Wednesday, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. And and 35 minutes on Thursday depending on their site and their position. Midland High School teachers have roughly 55 minutes of planning on the release days and about 40 minutes on
003March 25th. 27 stakeholders met to collaboratively develop a well-informed stakeholder supported recommendation for the inclusion of early release days in the academic calendar. During the meeting, the following information was shared. Earlier this year, we conducted a staff and family survey. The survey opened February 3rd for one week. We received 1,857 responses, 80% of which were amilies staff expressed a preference for continuing early release days with a fair split between Thursday or Friday. Families, however, overwhelmingly preferred weekly Friday. We also examined student and teacher attendance data from September 9th through October 31st. While this was a sample, it provided insight into attendance trends across elementary and high school. It's important to note that the Arizona Department of Education requires students to be in school for 180 days. Ad also has instructional time requirements. Primary grades grades
0041 through 3 require 712 hours of instruction per year. Intermediate grades four through eight require 890 hours. and high school 9 through 12 requires 720 hours. These are minimal instructional times and are non-negotiable. Ad also provides recommended minutes for core subjects which are not mandated but they do guide our schedule. At the elementary level, ELA and math are highly protected in our master schedule. When is science and social studies are usually the first to be reduced or eliminated, not specials. In addition to subjects, elementary schools also dedicate 20 minutes per day to me and me. These recommended minutes do not account for programs like NOVA, fire safety, or financial literacy. At the middle school and high school levels, recommended minutes similarly guide scheduling. Although it isn't possible to extend math period due to time constraints
005recommendations. Analyzing pacing guides, we found many classrooms are able to cover roughly 66% of the adopted curriculum over the course of the school year. It is important to note that state testing begins immediately after third quarter. With all this context, we examine the pros and cons and the impact on instructional and planning minutes for four potential options. Eliminating early release days all together. This is the impact. So that you can see the total hours of direct instruction and then the total amount of time for preparation. Direct instruction does not include lunch or reducing early release to one per month. maintaining early release once a week. And then we also with 11 a.m. instruction. Following that, we um went into a consensus protocol processing time moving into small groups into larger groups and then coming to
006full. The recommendation from the committee is implementing a 100 p.m. early release every Friday maintaining early release days on July 30th, October 1st, and December 17th. school conferences previously and an 11 a.m. on May 20th. This schedule is anticipated to provide consistent protected time for teacher planning, professional development and collaboration and will promote continuity in teaching and learning. It also supports high school student athletes on Fridays and making after school extracurricular opportunities. We recognize potential challenges including addressing child care and transportation needs, strengthening student and staff attendance practices, and ensuring professional development and collaboration time is meaningful and high quality. To monitor the impact of early release, we will collect academic and benchmark data, state assessment results, school goals, casing guides, behavior trends, and student and staff. Key considerations from the committee include establishing clear
007expectations, procedures, and accountability for staff and student attendance, implementing the plan as a trial, evaluating trends in data throughout the school year, and defining a consistent and realistic close of business on Fridays. This approach balances instructional needs, staff professional growth, and community considerations while allowing us to effect your name. Share with us. Hello, my name is Elijah and I'm a junior start. I think a student on the topic I know you have heard many perspectives of different students some students specific example was the AC Friday. quizzes and testing on Friday. Start high school. Anyone else? expectations. That's what Anyone else? I want to thank you for this express. Anyone else? See none. I will close public discussion. So member and myself had an opportunity to serve on this committee and there was a lot of
008feedback a lot of things that some of the discussions that So front of mind is I do think that we have a tough decision to make and that everyone is going to be happy whatever decisions but I think two things that student achievement is the center of what we're doing to that very also we have the reason we're having this discussion schedu Friday and so I just ask for another Some of you decision and I will say one of the things spoke to that district. I had so many documents. I um reached out to nine different districts um around Arizona and in our region, Maricopa, Deer Valley, Gilbert, Phoenix Elementary, Bullhead, Cayman, Needles, and River Valley. Union High School and Elementary District. Um, most of these districts have early release on Wednesdays. One district did
009have an early release Friday. That was Deer Valley Unified School District. So, I talked to their director of student achievement and they have been in place for four years and have had no adverse effects on attendance with staff or students. And I think all the leaders Vice President I understand what What was what was the split on the teachers? pulling. Right. So for me going back some of the discussions that we had one that I think covers some of the learning loss is extending the school specifically for elementary hours and then staggering our school times instead of the entire district all starting at 8:00. High school starts at one time, middle school starts at a different time, middle parents. You have a a parent that has a student elementary, then they need to get their
010middle school all the way to the south side of town, it can become an issue. And so I would ask this that would be something especially and I do agree basis for I would say that we are going to have to understand a lot of students understanding differences. And then the other is that we professional developers are here and there's no school for students. We had professional development days. We can see what that would look like for our teachers and I think it's important back And at the same time doing that we have to also consider graduation and we're outside. It sounds like policy. Republic. I do have a question. If we look at obviously the professional next calendar looking I think I do look at the high school, but I know that we are
011already building master schedules at the high school level and at the middle school. And so I think that while I think that a staggered time could be beneficial to our district, I don't think that next school year to do that. Can I also address the idea of adding in professional development days? >> We do have to remember that 180 days is required by law for students to be in school. So, we would have to either start earlier in July or extend beyond Memorial Day, which I know is a very um it's a hot topic with the public starting That is correct. That is correct. Thank you. >> I do I would like to know if there's any feedback in the rooms. Do I need to be louder? All right. So, a long time ago So,
012it was a big deal. It's hard. used to scene two things. One, thinking of starting a husband's teacher. I will tell you my son does not get up to early texting, calling asking all the things and so that would be a concern for a high school. Um I also work schedule where they are getting 45 instruction as a teacher. I don't want that to my concern. So I understand Cyber press down And so that's going to >> So we have kids right now coming to school. >> And do we not like us? That is absolutely unacceptable. Thank you. I think that will be another item that we need to address, but that's >> I thought this would be a great opportunity. >> Thank you. We can talk about it. >> Wow. Thank you. We can
013bring that up. All right. Is there anyone else? Well, thank you all for your feedback. Very much appreciate it. We can definitely look at a model that everyone starts at the same time. discussion and announcements. Um so in announcements we definitely love Dr. students. I would love to support Make sure students are being picked up. Could you, Miss Barney, how many students are missing school right now? Just a guess. I'm not going to host you. that is being worked on actually. So >> well that is actually so right now myself and representative are working on changing the current state legislation policy for buses right now student and then look at what the especially here. So that is something All right. Dr. I think lot of opinions. Well, discussion announcements item 5.1 motion Yes. Yes. Thank
014you. Have a wonderful evening.