Board questions extra institute days

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Updated: March 17, 2012 9:52AM

Questions arose about the amount of non-instructional time teachers spend at Lincolnwood School District 74 when the board of education recently sought to approve a 2012-13 school year calendar.

Board member Georjean Hlepas Nickell said adding more teacher institute days may result in increased costs for the district, during a discussion of the topic at a Feb. 2 board meeting.

“When we accepted the new practice of early release we were informed that this was in lieu of additional teacher institute days,” said Hlepas Nickell. “I wouldn’t begrudge the teachers that extra planning time but our instructional limits could be improved.”

The proposed school year calendar includes six teacher institute days, two more than in years past.

The calendar also contains 33 early-dismissal days, reflective of a move the district made in the 2008-2009 school year when it adjusted the start and end times at its three schools so that students could leave an hour early every Monday.

Hlepas Nickell said she requested information from the district’s business office about expenditures for substitute teachers and received “assurances” that additional institute days would impact the overall budget.

At that point in the meeting Chair Pro-Temp Amy Frankel interrupted and said Hlepas Nickell’s comments were not relevant to the vote on the calendar.

Hlepas Nickell said that the board should be aware that the district “went from $145,000 to over $165,000 in expenditures for substitutes,” she said.

“Some of this information is not shared with us when we vote on those contracts or when we’re talking about the calendars overall,” she said. “These things are seeping through other vehicles. So when is it an appropriate time to talk about it?”

Frankel said Hlepas Nickell should talk to her and that they could bring the matter to the committee of the whole for discussion.

“The purpose of this evening is to take action on the calendar as presented to us,” Frankel said.

The board adopted by the calendar by a vote of four to one, with Hlepas Nickell opposing and Scott Anderson abstaining.

When the district renewed its contract with the Lincolnwood Teachers’ Association Local 1274 in September 2010, it opted to extend the school year by two days, Superintendent Mark Klaisner said.

The agreement, which runs from 2010 through 2017, states “the teacher work year shall consist of 183 days” and that “duty days shall include days of pupil attendance, conference days, institute days, workshops and emergency closing days.”

“Those two days didn’t affect instructional time at all,” Klaisner said.

He said the long-standing contract is representative of the positive relationship the district has with the teacher’s union, adding: “We are actually very proud of that (document).”

District 74 has traditionally scheduled four institute days every school year, one of which is not listed on the calendar because it’s a non-attendance day, Klaisner said.

“Institute days are almost always related to professional development” and “designed around theme or district goal of our strategic plan,” said Klaisner.

For example in the fall the district used one of these day to train staff on technology.

Every other year District 74 partners with other school districts to host a full day of networking and training for staff.

Last year Lincolnwood and 10 other school districts spent an institute day at Niles North High School where they engaged in breakout learning sessions and heard from a guest keynote speaker.

The purpose of the early release time on Mondays, Klaisner said, is to give teachers an extra hour to meet with departmental and special project groups.

“Principals also use them once a month for faculty meetings to discuss goals and belief statements,” he said.

Klaisner said the district’s recent survey of 400 parents revealed that a majority wanted to keep early release days as opposed to switching to earlier start times.

“It’s been built into the culture,” he said.