Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12 is moving its longtime Wednesday early dismissal earlier to give teachers more time to meet their workloads in the pandemic. The board voted unanimously Dec. 10 to make the change next month and add workshop days in January and March. According to the meeting on the district’s YouTube channel, with most students back in school this fall, the remote learning option has added to teachers’ work, some more than others.

“We need to fix this problem, because it’s pretty stressful and it’s pretty difficult,” Superintendent of Schools Howie Tuttle said. He said teachers’ survey responses ranged from no new workload issues to “folks who were like, ready to quit. They were exhausted by this whole thing,” he told the board.

Tuttle cited an average of about six hours’ extra work a week per teacher, including four hours already built into their schedule this fall by dismissing students at 2 p.m. most days instead of 2:30 pre-pandemic, and by changing Wednesday’s and some Mondays’ pre-pandemic, professional development times to prep time and remote teaching.

After working with the union, he proposed dialing back Wednesday’s 1:30 p.m. dismissal to 11:30 a.m. That would help teachers who need that time and it would still meet the reopening committee’s view it is good for students to get up and go to school each morning, for at least a few hours, he said.

Ending Wednesday’s in-person learning would raise the question of whether or not hourly workers could still work that day, Tuttle said.

Some board members suggested further tweaks to aid faculty, staff, students and families. Tuttle said he can try to get more information and the board can take another look in January. He added, if the district moves to a hybrid model due to changes in the pandemic, teachers’ workloads could change again. 

“I’m sure this conversation is not over.”