A New Year, A New Schedule for Wayzata Schools

Last year the Wayzata School Districtimplemented a new model for teachers in every school called Professional Learning Communities.

This model has been a proven method across the country to provide more concentrated time for teachers to meet together and address specific student needs.

According to the district, the model is a simple yet powerful idea.

Teachers meet in each grade level or subject area as teams to discuss student progress, review assessment and test data. Teachers plan strategies to help individual or small groups of students.

Adjustments were made for teachers to be able to make more time for their PLC groups to meet during the school day at the elementary level and .

At the elementary level, school start and end times won’t change, but they will at the high school level.

Elementary teachers will meet for 20 to 30 minutes each day in their teams while other school staff supervises students during this time and trained and familiar staff members supervise special needs students. Implementation will vary from school to school, but the will meet for about the same amount of time.

The middle school schedule works for PLC meetings so no changes were needed this year.

But at Wayzata High School, adding the PLC time will be done with late starts on Wednesdays throughout the school year. There will be no change in school end times. On the following dates, classes will begin at 8:09 a.m. instead of 7:30 a.m.:

• September 14, 21, 28
• October 5, 12, 26
• November 2, 16
• December 7, 14
• January 4, 11, 18, 25
• February 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
• March 7, 14, 21
• April 11, 18, 25
• May 2, 9, 16, 23, 30

PLC groups will meet 7:15 to 8 a.m. on these days. On late-start days, buses will run on regular schedules and there will be structured instructional supervision for students who arrive before the start of the school day.  Familiar and trained staff will supervise students with special needs. And for those students who drive to school, they will be expected to arrive in time for the start of the school day at 8:09 a.m.

PLC meetings for early childhood special education staff will be incorporated with regular weekly meetings so they will have no schedule changes.

(Information provided by the Wayzata School District Department of Communications.)