High schools in the Shelby County School System will start later for a few days this upcoming school year in order to carve out some much needed time for Professional Development and collaboration for school faculty and staff.

 According to High School Coordinator Robin Thomas, the school district will pilot the new late start date seven days during the 2013-2014 school year.  The dates will be September 4, October 9, November 13, January 15, February 12, March 12, and April 16.  On those seven selected days, the school day will begin at 9:00 a.m. 

 Students will not be expected to arrive until 9:00 a.m. on these selected days. However, students who depend on bus transportation will still have the option of riding the bus at the normal time.  Bus students, along with any others who choose to come at the normal time, will be supervised by school staff until 9:00 a.m.  

 “We were looking for ways to provide quality professional development for our faculty and staff throughout the school year,” explained Thomas.  “Other school districts have done this successfully so we thought we would try this as a pilot program and see how it goes.”

 Thomas said the late start date will give administrators and teachers the opportunity to meet collaboratively in Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s).  Those PLC groups might be grade level teachers or all subject area teachers meeting to discuss various instructional strategies to help improve student learning.