For the 2014-2015 school year, Turlock Unified School District (TUSD), implemented PLCs, Professional Learning Communities, meetings for all teachers within the district. These meetings take place Wednesdays after school, therefore student have had their current Wednesday schedules shortened by 55 minutes. Due to the minimizing of the school day, students have lost instructional minutes. TUSD’s solution is to add an extra day to the school year.
The 2015-2016 school year will begin on Thursday, August 13, 2015. Along with the extra instructional day, a change has been made to the school calendar which allows all district employees and students to have the day before Thanksgiving, Wednesday, November 25, 2015, off as well. This day allows for a long, five day break at Thanksgiving.
Students at PitmanHigh School agree that they would choose to keep minimum day Wednesdays for an additional instructional day. Juniors Jesus Nunez and Yash Hothi stated that they enjoy the short days. Deenpal Kaur explained that, “[Short days] are a break from routine.”
While students and teachers have an extra instructional day, teachers also have two additional professional development days, August 11th and 12th. In a conversation with physics teacher Kris Shaw, he shared his thoughts on the extra instructional day:
“I feel the instructional day for students could be used wisely if it was to benefit the students for their future. I would organize the day for each grade to prepare for their future.”
He also believes that the extra days for teachers will benefit their preparation to better benefit their students.
There are less than a handful of school districts in the state of California that go to school for 181 days. Many teachers within TTA, Turlock Teachers Association, fought against the addition of the instructional day, but they lost the vote by 25 votes.
A large concern for students this year was the loss of the finals schedule for both high schools at the end of the fall semester. It has been confirmed that students will have a finals schedule for the 2015 spring semester. Wednesday, May 27, 2015 will be a minimum day, regular Wednesday scheduling, with no PLCs for teachers thus allowing them to use the time for individual teacher preparation. Thursday May 28th and 29th will be minimum days, release at 12:30, with first and second period on the 27th, third and fourth on the 28th, and fifth and sixth on the 29th.
Although many teachers within the district may not like the additional instructional day, many students agree that they would choose the minimum days for the additional day. Daphne Blas enjoys the idea of starting her senior year off on a Thursday, rather than Monday because she doesn’t enjoy going back to school as it is, let alone on a Monday.