Starting the 2018-2019 year at McPherson High School we will get out of school the first Wednesday of every month at 12:30 because the district wanted to give teachers more opportunity to have time to work collaboratively without using their own time.

Early release is on Wednesdays for the whole district now instead of on every Tuesday for just the high school. It gives teachers more time to collaborate. They will have more time for meetings and if there is a project that needs to be done they can get it done during school time instead of their own time.

I asked the teachers what they were doing on early release days to find out they’re using their time. Mrs. Schoenwetter, Ms. Hall, and Mr. Sanchez said, the most recent early release day we had a meeting that took almost the whole afternoon up, the meeting was for assessments and data. We don’t get much time for ourselves and we’re hurried at lunch because we don’t get much time to eat. Mr. Joey, the resource officer said “I just sit in on the teacher meeting and then I go to the Law Enforcement Center to see if they have anything for me to do there.”

Not everybody loves having only a half day in the middle of the week, “I don’t like it that much because it doesn’t give us much time to work in class” said freshman, Arriana Gross. Some people have mixed feelings, Belle Alexander, sophomore said “I liked having it every tuesday instead of the first Wednesday of every month. But I still like Wednesdays when they happen. There is really nothing to do in 30 minutes.” There are also people who love it like senior, Gage Stafford, he said, “I like it because it gives me time to go home and sleep.”

Many people suggested switching the day to Friday because it is odd to have half a day in the middle of the week and have to go back to school the next day. Katelyn Mintzer, freshmen said, “It would be way better if it was on a Friday because you could have a longer weekend and time to do more stuff like go see your grandparents that live far away.”