By Casey Jarmes | The News-Review
PACKWOOD – The Pekin School Board approved a new school calendar during a special board meeting on Feb. 23. Next year, classes will get out at 1:15 on Fridays, which will give more time for Professional Development. Prior to the vote, Superintendent Dave Harper stated that the principals had spoken to staff about the idea of instead having late starts for PD, an idea brought up at the previous board meeting, and that staff felt that would not be conductive to good PD.
Board member Mike Davis cast the sole No vote against the calendar change. He explained, prior to voting, that having early outs instead of the current once a month no-school Fridays would lead to nine extra days of wages for bus drivers, cooks and associates, estimating this would cost $25,000 a year. He raised a number of other concerns, like how this would affect a counselor who works at the school on Fridays, what students would do between school and practices, how it would affect childcare, the effect on bus drivers, and teachers having the “Friday blues.” Davis said that there was no data showing that either schedule was the best and that a lot of big schools had gone back to five full days after trying out the four and a half calendar.
Board member Ray Fear stated that he didn’t love the new schedule, but that he trusted Harper to figure it out. Board member J.D. Olinger echoed these comments, adding that it wasn’t their job to find bus drivers or decide what to do with kids after school. Board member Linda Brock said that, if teachers want this bad enough, then it was only fair to give them the opportunity to try and improve the quality of their teaching. She noted that, if they want to keep administrators, they have to trust them to do what they think is best. Brock noted that the new schedule could be changed back if it didn’t work out.
Also at the special board meeting, the board approved two bids from H21 to replace the high school floor and bleachers respectively. Athletic Director Klynt Weber explained that the gym floor was original to the school and was starting to show its age. He explained that the new bleachers will be 24 inches wide, instead of the current 22, but have six rows instead of seven. He stated this would take them from the current maximum of 740 seats to 615 or 620, but that he was confident that would be fine 99% of the time. The new bleachers will be farther back from the out of bounds line, allowing people to sit on the front row during games. The bleacher bid will also replace the bleachers in the small gym, which are currently stored in a storage room next to the gym and rolled out for games., with new bleachers permanently bolted to the wall.
