EMMAUS, Pa. — East Penn School Board has approved a new iteration of the district calendar that changes middle school schedules to match with the end of terms for a new trimester structure.
"This is not a substantive change to any plans that families may have already made," Superintendent Kristen Campbell said Monday at the board meeting where the changes were made.
- East Penn School Board approved a new district calendar that changes Eyer and Lower Macungie middle school schedules to a trimester structure
- It keeps students in school for 183 days and does not substantively change the start or finish of the school year
- Teachers and administrators recommended the changes
She said the calendar was updated for middle school families, changing some days related to early dismissal days and middle school conference days, aligning them with the end of new trimester schedules.
The calendar still features 183 student days and 190 teacher days. Two snow days are built into the calendar, with up to five flexible instruction days.
The administration noted in an initial presentation in February that it was overall similar to prior years and sets the first day of school for Monday, Aug. 28.
More opportunities for faculty
Assistant Superintendent Douglas Povilaitis said then that because of increased state requirements for safety and security training, two additional professional development days were designated for staff over the prior year.
A presentation during a March district board meeting detailed how a committee of staff from both Eyer and Lower Macungie middle schools recommended adopting a trimester schedule of 62 instructional days per period at each school.
That's in contrast to a 47-day quarterly system or year-round term system.
"When we did our research and talked to a lot of the teachers and read the information, we were saying a happy medium for students was the teachers going from a year-long grading system to trimesters, where they still have longer periods of time to grade."Lower Macungie Middle School Principal Sallie Yencho
The presenters on the middle level grading committee argued it would allow for more time to devote to curriculum, and could open up opportunities for more long-form writing assignments and project-based assessments.
For faculty, that would allow more time to provide in-depth feedback.
"When we did our research and talked to a lot of the teachers and read the information, we were saying a happy medium for students was the teachers going from a year-long grading system to trimesters, where they still have longer periods of time to grade," Lower Macungie Middle School Principal Sallie Yencho said.
"It does allow during that time chunk for teachers to work one-on-one with students with writing, which a lot of students are asking for."
