Two Virginia school districts are preparing to release students early on select Wednesdays in an effort to combat teacher burnout due to the ongoing pandemic.
The Virginia Beach City Public School board voted Tuesday 9-1 to end classes two hours early on seven Wednesdays in the next three months, NBC affiliate WAVY reported. The schedule is intended to allow teachers a “breather” so they can have uninterrupted time to prepare for class.
District spokeswoman Natalie Allen told NBC News that the final plan would be shared with parents Wednesday night.
“Our teachers are being asked to do more, to cover more, to cover cafeterias, to cover hallways and to cover their colleagues’ classrooms more so than they ever have before,” Superintendent Aaron Spence said. “They are not able to prepare for instruction.”
The district is almost 100 teachers short.
July 26, 202002:12
Suffolk Public Schools earlier this month requested a similar system.
The early dismissal will begin in November, and happen biweekly on Wednesdays through the rest of the school year, according to a district memo.
“Teachers and instructional staff have lost valuable planning and professional development time as a result of the impact of COVID-19 absences and coverage needs, quarantine instructional support requirements, and other circumstances,” the memo said.
Results from a nationwide poll of K-12 employees released earlier this year found job satisfaction plummeted from 69 percent in March 2020 to 44 percent in October 2020. Of the roughly 3.5 million full- and part-time public school teachers, 38 percent said that working during the pandemic has made them consider changing jobs, according to the report from the Center for State and Local Government Excellence. The vast majority of those surveyed reported feeling stressed (63 percent), high levels of burnout/fatigue (54 percent) and substantial anxiety (47 percent) at work due to the pandemic.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
