Following an hours-long presentation and discussion regarding proposed changes to the 2026-27 academic calendar, the Carson City School Board voted to postpone the approval of changes until more outreach could be done.
Under the new proposal, the main change would implement weekly early release days, as opposed to the every-other-week schedule that is currently employed.
The change aims to provide consistent time for teachers to engage in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) to improve instructional quality through collaboration with their peers, according to Chief Academic Officer Brandon Bringhurst.
Discussions circled around needing to improve student proficiencies and outcomes under the working theory that the largest factor in a quality education are the instructors, and those instructors need consistent time to collaborate and improve their skills.
“If we’re totally satisfied with the results that we’re getting in our schools, then obviously no changes are necessary,” Bringhurst told the board. “But if we want to see things continue to improve… changes sometimes need to be made.”
However, hesitation came from both the board, the community, and even some teachers regarding the change as it would impact working families who rely on childcare.
Some teachers also weren’t sure of the change as the proposed plan would reduce approximately 5,000 instructional minutes over the course of the year — though the new total would still exceed the state minimum requirements for instructional time by nearly 190 hours.
According to Trustee Varner, the teachers he spoke with said they wanted more — not less — time in the classroom in front of students.
For the most part, teachers and admin who spoke were in favor of the changes, citing the need for collaboration and timely feedback for student intervention to make sure students fully understand the curriculum before their unit is over.
Bringhurst illustrated this concept with a social studies example: if teachers give a quiz on Friday but cannot meet to analyze the data and plan interventions for three weeks, the class has already moved on to a new unit, leaving struggling students behind. Weekly meetings allow teachers to analyze data immediately and intervene the same week, and find out if one style of teaching might be reporting better scores than others, which will allow colleagues to incorporate what’s working into their own courses.
While Tuesday was selected over Wednesday to allow the district to better utilize the Regional Professional Development program (RPDP), he said the day wasn’t as important as the consistency for each week.
However, the suggestion of utilizing a Monday or Friday was thrown out as those would likely result in a drop in attendance by students.
Something that was alluded to several times throughout the meeting was the ineffectiveness of current PLCs. District admin and union leadership admitted they were not functioning at a “highly effective level” even for those who meet beyond the every-other-week time period.
Carson Middle School teacher Cara Tirado said that effort alone cannot overcome a bad schedule. She said at a previous school district she worked at, they collaborated not just between classrooms within a single department, but spanning multiple curricula, such as science classes studying the hormones of Romeo and Juliet while the English classes read the book.
She said that even though she and her team meet daily at lunch as well as outside normal designated times, they are still falling short of their goals.
“I meet with my teacher teams every single day — I am not exaggerating that,” Tirado said. “We meet on the ERD days. We meet on Fridays and we are still not yet highly effective because we do not have that repetitive and consistent time that we can count on.”
Bringhurst was transparent about the fact that while the district has built the infrastructure for PLCs such as proficiency scales and assessments, they lack the consistency to use them effectively.
Brian Wallace, president of the Ormsby County Education Association, acknowledged the competitive pressure the district is facing and the need to improve internal processes to maintain enrollment, especially as private and charter schools continue to move into the region.
“We know we have achievement gap situations that we need to close. We have competition from charter schools we need to actually address. We need to remain the public school district in this area, period. When it comes to PLCs, we’ve been kind of hit and miss in the past … perhaps all of us, from time to time from the top down, maybe we haven’t utilized them as well as we should have.”
He said that he knows there is “a little bit of a bad taste out there,” from both teachers and the community alike, but he doesn’t think it’s something that can’t be overcome through effective leadership.
While the board wasn’t ready to move in any direction just yet, Trustee Varner said that if the proposed changes are approved, the district must ensure strict protocols are in place so the new time is not wasted like it occasionally was in the past. Bringhurst assured the Board that with the new calendar, the district would implement specific agendas and norms to ensure the time is “purposeful and productive.”
There was a distinct lack of representation from families at the meeting, with only one parent of school children attending public comment, which board members found surprising.
The board moved to postpone the decision until more community outreach could be done with families, students, student organizations and staff members via the unions.
The presentation regarding the changes can be viewed in the video below, which should begin at 1:19:21.
