Waukesha School Board Eliminates Early Release Days, Day Off for Students in October

Early release days for professional development will be discontinued next school year will be discontinued under the  2012-13 calendar recently approved by the Waukesha School Board. 

Early release days will be replaced with full days for professional development scheduled once per month, except in November and June. 

The change will pull fewer teachers from their classrooms for professional development and require fewer substitutes, according to the district.

For students, the new calendar also eliminates a day off in October on what used to be a four-day weekend during teacher's convention, shortening that to a three-day weekend. In February, the traditional four-day break will be a one-day break for students.

For 2012-13, there are 176 school days scheduled. With that amount, the first emergency school closing would not need to be made up.

In 2011-12, there were 177 student contact days scheduled. A comparison of 2011-2012 to 2012-2013 from the school district shows that even with one less day, at the middle and elementary level, students have only one less class hour of instructions. At the high school level, they will have 14 more hours of instruction.

The chart also shows that the district exceeds Wisconsin Department of Instruction requirements for hours of instruction.