Days deemed for professional development—as Jan. 23 was—have been so productive that teachers like Sally Perry, who is also the parent of a fourth-grader in the district, are hoping to have more collaborative time in the coming academic year. But the dilemma district officials are facing is how to fit it into the academic calendar in a way that makes nearly everyone happy.

Kindergarten teachers at some of the elementary schools in the district tell their students that professional development days are when they attend "teacher school." The time allows teachers to analyze student work, plan curriculum, assess new materials, align instruction with state standards and have conversations within and across grade levels about students, to name a few. District officials explained professional development as being different than "prep time," which is used by teachers for making copies and phone calls, running errands or planning the next day's lesson.

For more than a year, a professional-development committee composed of administrators, principals, teachers and parents have been working on a plan called "RISE: Reflection-Inquiry-Student Success-Equity," to offer more professional-development time for teachers and consequently improve student achievement.

"Our intent has stayed consistent and clear for over a year—to improve the quality of instruction and learning for every child in the district," said Assistant Superintendent Louise Levy.

But the plan is being criticized by parents as to how it will affect their lives and how the district will be held accountable for its success. District officials offered three parent forums to listen to parent and community concerns about the plan. The proposed plan for K­5 schools suggests a Wednesday minimum day, where students would be dismissed from school early to allow for teacher collaboration. The time on Wednesday when students wouldn't be in class could then be added onto Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday to ensure the district meets state-required student instructional time.

SUSD board members discussed the plan at an April 27 meeting, listening for more than two hours to parent concerns from the audience and a report by RISE committee members. Board members did not take action or adopt the plan; rather, it was an informational item for discussion on the agenda. They directed the RISE committee back to the drawing board to find "a middle ground" and implement the plan possibly one Wednesday a month, instead of every week, or to generate other solutions.

District Superintendent Lane Weiss stressed the district currently doesn't have money in the budget to pay for substitutes that would free teachers to have professional-development time. The district also doesn't have the financial liberty to pay teachers to add professional-development time to either the beginning or end of their day.

Some working parents were concerned about increased child-care costs associated with the plan due to early dismissal. Many parents were also dissatisfied that the plan could reduce teacher-child contact time or offer less-effective contact time and create an irregular schedule. They questioned how their individual child would benefit from the proposal and why a change was being considered when children in the district already receive a stellar education. Without buy-in from the majority of parents, board members worried about dissension.

"We just cannot succeed if we don't have a win-win and the parents on board with this," said Board President Cindy Ruby.

Board member John Waite said communication between parents and the district needs to improve before parents will see professional-development time as a priority, as most teachers already have.

"We need to be very specific about the problem we are solving and much tighter about how we are going to solve the problem," he said.

Should board members approve a revised version of the plan before the end of the school year, negotiations would still have to take place between representatives from the Saratoga teachers' union and the district to reach a consensual change to the teachers' contract.