Schools to continue Wednesday early release

Aiming for more after school solutions before next year

By Kendra Walker 

In a 3-1 vote, the Gunnison Watershed School District board this week approved the 2025/2026 district calendar, which will continue the districtwide Wednesday early release schedule and follow a similar structure of holidays and breaks as the last several years. However, the board also made clear that they understand the challenges the Wednesday schedule presents for parents, especially in Gunnison, and approved the schedule with the direction that superintendent Leslie Nichols works to create a staff position to coordinate after-school academic and enrichment activities for students, work toward better engaging students after school and adding extra buses at later times, and to create a community task force to find solutions. The board asked for a proposal including those items by May so they can begin implementing solutions by fall. 

The board spent more than two hours of the meeting hearing from administrators and public comment and discussing the pros and cons to the early release schedule. They have also spent several previous meetings discussing the matter, reviewing survey results from students, parents and teachers, and gathering additional feedback on the pros and cons of the current Wednesday schedule. 

Nichols reiterated that after looking at various options and angles and schedules, her recommendation is to continue the Wednesday early release schedule.

“I understand deeply the struggles that it presents for some of our parents who find the structure challenging in the realms of childcare and transportation, for our teachers who find the different schedule in the middle of the week not beneficial to how they would prefer to run their classes. We want to support our students as best we can. To do that, we have got to support our teachers as best we can. Gunnison Watershed didn’t invent this structure. It exists across the country, across the state, as a way to honor teachers’ time in their contract time. You have to have this time to work with your colleagues without students to hone your craft and be the best that you can so that your students achieve and grow as much as they possibly can. For better or worse, there is no way to please all the people all the time, especially when it comes to the calendar…and so we very much respect the different rhythms of our different communities, and we very much respect the different needs of our teachers and how we offer them professional development and how we expect them to collaborate with one another. But without establishing common time, we may as well be two districts, and that is the opposite of efficient. That is the opposite of how to best use our budget dollars.”

Nichols noted her desire to find better solutions to the Wednesday schedule, by adding another staff position to help coordinate after school programming and address transportation needs by perhaps running both a 1:45 and 3:30 p.m. bus on Wednesdays.

“We have seen improvement over these four years in what we’re offering the families in the ways that we’ve tried to shift the schedule at our schools for our teachers to improve their experience with us. And I absolutely believe that with more time, we will continue to iron out the rough edges that our families are experiencing and that our staff is experiencing.”

The board heard from several district administrators, including Crested Butte Elementary School principal Sally Hensley who noted that the Wednesday schedule was difficult for Crested Butte when it was first introduced. “I do think that there’s a lot of work we can do to improve our programming for students on Wednesday afternoons. It was definitely not well received at the beginning from parents because it just felt really disruptive, and hard for parents to manage when they’re working parents. And we certainly don’t want kids wandering around town unsupervised. So we’ve just had a little bit longer (than Gunnison) to develop those programs and develop our partnerships with our community programs.”

Gunnison Elementary School principal Robin Wilkinson noted that elementary teachers are teaching multiple subjects and the extra training/planning time is essential. “​​I want to ensure that we have time for our staff to dig into a new curriculum and to work and learn from one another. That is really important to me.” 

“The collaboration and the planning time is invaluable,” agreed Gunnison Middle School principal Lance Betts. “Our least favorable option would be for it to go away.”

“What happens if it just goes away?” asked board president Tyler Martineau. 

“It would be really hard for us to have common planning time. So it would be very hard for us to replicate what’s happening now with it gone,” said Betts. 

“I think that the structure has good bones, and we can do better as administrators in supporting our teachers,” said Gunnison High School principal Jim Woytek. “I think losing that time would hurt teachers. And I think that time for kids can be really beneficial,” he said, noting that students also use that time to meet with teachers for tutoring and making up missed work. 

District technology integration specialist Katie Gallagher said, “I believe this time is invaluable for fostering collaborative learning among our K-12 teachers. Personally, in my role, I have used this time to schedule a myriad of professional growth and collaborative groups related to technology integration, comprehensive health education, instructional coaching, and teacher induction. This time has allowed me to involve teachers and share decision making on work that impacts our classrooms, teaching and students. Early release time provides opportunities for these new teachers to do a variety of things, including networking and building community, engaging and learning experiences built specifically for them. And our current induction program is built on the feedback we have received time and time again from our newest staff members in which they are asking for time.”

Some parents have proposed moving the early release to Fridays. “Teachers are sharing that the kids and staff struggle midway through the week because of that inconsistency,” said one parent. “Moving early release to Fridays helps all of us. It still gives teachers time to collaborate, plan and hold meetings. It gives students consistency throughout the week. 

Parents are able to adapt their schedules easier on Friday afternoon versus a Wednesday.”

Former board member Dave Taylor said his position has not changed since he previously served on the board. “Three years ago, I voted against the calendar that would continue early release Wednesdays. The crux of the argument from the supporting members of the board was that early release needed to be improved and needed more time to gain acceptance in Gunnison. Here we are three years later with the same dilemma before the board. Have early release Wednesdays been improved and gained acceptance? Clearly not.”

Taylor noted the statistics from the school survey: 62.1% Lake School parents, 71.25% of Gunnison Elementary School parents and 81.25% of Gunnison Middle School parents oppose the early release Wednesdays.

“This is overwhelming opposition. To characterize the effect on parents as an inconvenience is stunning to me. These people are missing work. They may struggle already to put food on their tables,” he said. 

Parent Ryan Romero said he and his wife have had to use their paid time off to support their kids’ Wednesday schedule instead of being able to use it for vacations, and he noted the added pressures and expenses to find programming this summer with no Summer Experience being offered. “It’s another hit for working class families,” he said. “We don’t want our kids running around unsupervised but that’s exactly what they’re doing on Wednesday, especially our junior high and high school kids. We want to give the teachers time because they’re the educators, and they need what they need. But I don’t think Wednesday is the right day to do that. I think Friday would be better for the Lake, elementary, middle school and parents.”

Parent Erin Ganser spoke on behalf of her CBCS students. “In addition to being a really welcome mental health break for all three of my kids, it’s hugely helpful by providing an opportunity for my student athletes to catch up, to meet with teachers, to catch up on everything that’s out in front of them, as well as shake a leg sometimes in the middle of the week when they’re really stressful,” she said. 

Board member Mark VanderVeer reaffirmed his position that he did not support approving the “status quo” with the same schedule as previous years. “I think it’s really a disservice of the parents not to consider their opinions,” he said. “Why are we falling back on that the district has to be identical? Why don’t you look at what supports each community, each school best, as opposed to the same for everybody?”

He suggested they make a change in the Gunnison schools schedule, perhaps removing the Wednesday early release from the elementary and middle schools. He also suggested moving toward a four-day schedule and using early release on Fridays as a way to test it. 

VanderVeer continued, “What frustrates me is we’re put in a position not to have time for a solution,” noting that the board approved the current calendar last year with the direction to find solutions to the Wednesday early release challenges. “What gets presented to us this year is the exact same thing. And I find us as a board to be failing miserably unless we give direction to what our expectations are next year.”

Board member Jody Coleman has previously expressed the desire for community feedback to help find solutions. She reiterated the importance of student achievement and teacher support, but also expressed strong compassion for the families and staff who are struggling with the current schedule. “My decision tonight will be about raising student achievement with the promise that we will work tirelessly from right now until August to contribute to solutions,” she said. 

“I am prepared to approve the superintendent’s proposed district calendar as presented for next year,” said board member Anne Brookhart. “I’m happy to hear about the proposed changes to make Wednesday better for families and programming better. I’m certainly open to a different proposed calendar when we have the time and the resources to really make sure that it’s going to go well and not be a burden on teachers and administrators before the next school year.”

Martineau agreed, “The opportunities for teachers to have time to collaborate, time to meet with students, and also time to lesson plan within the school day is a real benefit. I really support the concept. It’s not just because Crested Butte supports it. It’s also because I believe in it. We need to have a calendar. We can’t put this off any longer.”

Coleman stressed that they must work toward providing additional buses later in the day, as well as expanding student engagement activities until 5:30 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays She also suggested dedicating a staffing position to plan the after-school enrichment and academic activities in Gunnison. 

Nichols said she was willing to work on those steps. “I’m more than happy to look into those very specific directions to try to improve how we do Wednesdays in our Gunnison community. I’m also very eager to begin this work tomorrow.”

The board voted 3-1, with VanderVeer voting against, to approve the recommended 2025/2026 district calendar as recommended by Nichols, including the Wednesday early release schedule. The vote included the caveat to work toward a new hire to coordinate student engagement, work toward additional transportation and student engagement opportunities and create a community task force to find more solutions, with a proposal by May for implementation moving forward.