In previous school years, two afternoons a month were designated for staff development time. This year, however, things are different. Algona Community Schools decided to take one full day a month for staff development instead of having two early outs for this purpose.
With having it be a full day rather than an early out, staff can be more efficient with their time, not having to rush after a school day to get to their meetings. They can hopefully get more done in a whole day than having just an afternoon every other week. Plus, guest speakers can be brought in with more time having a full day.
Mr. Carter, Algona superintendent, explained, “We had a hard time getting work done with two hour early outs, so we went to a whole day where we can have larger chunks of time to get more things done in a day. Also, it’s hard for parents of young kids sometimes to find partial daycare on those days. However, the biggest reason for the change is it gives us more time and more opportunities to get more professional development done with our staff.”
The following days in the 2021-2022 school year are when students will not have school for staff development: September 22, October 20, December 8, January 3, January 12, February 23, March 30, and April 27.