Some Guilford County schools will have more instruction days for the new academic year. It's part of the district's plan to help struggling students.
The plan applies to what are called Restart schools. Guilford County has sixteen in the district.
The Restart designation gives low-performing schools more flexibility to meet the needs of struggling students. That includes calendar adjustments, how they fund teachers, and class size. Next year, these schools will have four more student days. Teachers will be on contract for an additional five days.
These schools are much more likely to have beginning teachers or teachers who have entered the profession through alternate pathways.
Chief Academic Officer Whitney Oakley says the extra time will allow for more tutoring opportunities and more professional development throughout the year.
“We know from the pandemic that students are at much different places right," says Oakley. "We are going to have to do scaffolds of instruction, we are going to have to target students who excelled when learning remotely and we are going to have to fill in all kinds of skill gaps and so this calendar is going to beneficial in that way too.”
Oakley says Guilford County Schools is asking the State Board of Education to approve eight more restart schools.
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