As the 2022-23 school year begins, many students, parents, and staff are questioning the recent decision by administration to implement Wednesday early-outs again. Friday early-outs began during hybrid learning and have been highly praised by the PV community. There seemed to be little to no opposition to Friday early-outs, so what drove the school board to make such a change?
Following just one week of school, major discussions are beginning regarding students’ love for Friday early-outs, rather than the Wednesday early-outs we see returning this year. The students enjoy having what feels like a longer weekend and more time to complete assignments before the weekend truly begins. Parents prefer Fridays to plan extended trips with the additional half day provided to them. As of now, the biggest unanswered question is “why”?
When members of the current Pleasant Valley school board were interviewed, many pieces started to fit together. Board president Nikil Wagle sheds light on the impact COVID-19 had on not only students, but teachers as well. Wagle states, “The board, along with the administration, wants as close to 100% staff participation. Wednesday early-outs were the most ideal way to achieve this.” In the midst of hybrid learning, Friday early-outs allowed teachers to access quality and pace of learning amongst classes.
At the end of the 2021-2022 school year, Friday early-outs returned. Staff shortages remained present not only at the high school, but the entire Pleasant Valley School District. Rather than covering for other classes during their open periods, administrators gave teachers a chance to catch up and make all necessary changes to their lesson plans.
Molly Brockmann, another school board member in the district, discusses the creation of a new committee, one composed of teachers from all grade levels. “The committee looked at how in-service time would be utilized and how to make it the most effective. They discussed what day of the week would be best, as Wednesdays typically do not have athletic events or other activities. Although Friday early-outs may work for families if they want to go out of town, there are many athletic events on Fridays that would require our teacher/coaches to leave early, therefore missing planning time, but, most importantly, making it difficult to collaborate within their other teaching groups.”
Wagle states, “For the last couple of decades, early-outs have always been on Wednesday afternoons”. This statement sparks some reflection within the PV community in regard to all of the changes that have been made since the beginning of the pandemic. The school district’s decision to reinstate Wednesday early-outs can be seen as an attempt to simply make education in Pleasant Valley seem normal, as it was before Covid. Although not all agree with this decision, it seems to be the best way to make students and staff feel as if their experience in education is back to normal.
Avery Carter • Jan 28, 2024 at 7:01 pm
This article helped me understand why they switched it to be on Wednesday. I never thought about all the reasons that can make it more difficult if we did have it on Friday’s. I found this really interesting and it helped me get more of an understanding on why it switched.
Emma Decker • Sep 7, 2023 at 6:09 pm
This is super interesting to me because I always just looked at it as it was annoying they took away the Friday early outs from us. Now I see that it was actually for a reason. It does make sense because I understand everyone wants things to be back to normal and most school athletic events are on Fridays. I never thought of it this way so this helped widen my perspective.
Mary • Sep 4, 2023 at 4:38 pm
This article helped my understand why we had Wednesday early outs and what surrounding factors led to this decision. I know have a better understanding of what all goes into making decisions to accommodate everyone in the school system.
Jalen • Feb 10, 2023 at 9:17 pm
This article has informed me on a question that has been not only wandering around in my mind, but in the peer groups at school as well. Not only does this article inform me on why we did early-outs on friday, but it also tells us why the school is switching back to wednesdays as well.
Melody R • Sep 24, 2022 at 12:43 am
This was a good insight into the reasoning behind Wednesday Early outs. I still prefer the Friday early outs, which created a block of free time, but it was nice to see the reasoning. My only question for these mid-week early releases is that there is a large percentage of students that take classes from Scott, which doesn’t follow our shorter schedule. This would still be an issue for Friday early releases, but I wonder how that is handled.
Elyanna • Sep 16, 2022 at 11:50 pm
Intersting while I agree that Friday early outs were best it is true that Friday there are many athletic events. Also we do get more frequent early outs that normal so I feel like the administration has made a change.
Rusty • Sep 16, 2022 at 1:32 pm
This article does a great job at showing the student perspective about early outs bit also from a faculty point of view that many students don’t see. I personally though the Friday outs were more beneficial to me as a student becasue it gave me more time to get caught up in certain classes and it gave me time every firday to go home and get my mind right before playing a football game on Friday nights.
Anthony • Sep 16, 2022 at 12:40 pm
I think the Friday early outs were better because it let everyone go home early on the weekend. Also a Wednesday is not a day people want to have an earl out on. They should change it back to Friday.
Caroline • Sep 15, 2022 at 10:02 am
It was nice to read up on the reason why we have switched up early outs! Knowing its intent to place normality in schools makes sense, plus to make it more convenient for teachers that coach.
Cole Pearson • Sep 13, 2022 at 12:50 pm
I along with mostly every student in the high school disagree with removing the early out fridays and replacing them with wednesdays. I now have a answer for why they did it and I understand the teachers need time to plan. However, I still disagree with the decision, teachers have 1 free period every single day to plan and if teachers are leaving early for sports they can do so on the bus. These wednesdays need to be changed back to fridays.
Jessica Raymond • Sep 13, 2022 at 11:10 am
This is a well written article . I do agree with wanting/having early out on Fridays as a student. I do understand the fact that there is not many sports or activities on Wednesdays and it’s in the middle of the week so teachers are still set on school and doing there work and going to meetings. And Fridays there is football games and a start to the weekend. But I still do think early outs should be on Friday.
Savana Stalkfleet • Sep 12, 2022 at 1:45 pm
I agree, this is a good way to explain to people why and the benefits and downfalls. You did an amazing job writing this is the inverted pyramid form. This was a very good educational article.
Jack • Sep 11, 2022 at 10:18 pm
Very nice article, I have to say that every other Wednesdays early outs are dumb and the only people that were complaining about the Friday ones were AP teachers which is annoying and I want the Fridays back.
Halle • Sep 9, 2022 at 1:43 pm
Great article! The why behind the Wednesday early outs definitely makes more sense, and I never thought about one of the reasons being that they want education to feel normal again.
CJ Smith • Sep 9, 2022 at 10:58 am
I think the way you found your information of why the school board made this decision to change back to Wednesday early-out was perfect and got us the correct information. However adding in a teacher or staff members thoughts could have better elaborated on how the teachers can be more productive on Wednesdays over Friday.
Malayna Albertson • Sep 9, 2022 at 10:13 am
agree many people were saying how much they love Friday early outs more and how it felt like their weekend was longer and had more time for homework. Also in my opinion I think Wednesday ones are dumb because theres no relaxing just homework.