The Kansas Board of Education approved a plan Tuesday to offer up to 20 hours of additional professional development time for public school educators working through the COVID-19 pandemic and voted to reject a proposal allowing local school boards to align K-12 spring break with university and colleges calendars. Randy Watson, state commissioner of education, said superintendents, teachers, paraprofessionals and instructional aides would welcome more time for instructional collaboration from Dec. 1 to April 30. He said the state Board of Education pressed districts to burn through allotted professional development hours last summer to prepare for the 2020-21 academic year. Most districts in Kansas complied with the suggestion, he said. Without a change in state policy, he said, the teachers wouldn’t have benefit of opportunities to work together this winter on refining instructional approaches.
Source: Kansas Reflector
