Fayetteville board approves departures of two administrators

Kathy Hanlon
Kathy Hanlon

FAYETTEVILLE -- The district's chief financial officer has resigned, and the retirement of a technology director has shifted from June to March.

The School Board approved their departures at the monthly meeting Thursday night. The board also heard a proposal to revise the 2017-18 school calendars.

CORRECTION

Gary Day's title was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.

Key dates in proposed revisions to 2017-18 calendars

Traditional schools

• First day: Aug. 14

• Last day: May 24

• Student days off: Sept. 4, Sept. 22, Nov. 20-24, Dec. 21-Jan. 5, Jan. 15, Feb. 19, March 19-23 and May 28 if school year is extended for snow days

Continuous schools

• First day: Aug. 14

• Last day: June 8

• Student days off: Sept. 4, Sept. 22-Sept. 29, Nov. 20-24, Dec. 21-Jan. 5, Feb. 12-Feb. 19, March 19-23 and May 28

— Staff report

Kathy Hanlon's resignation was submitted Feb. 14 and was effective immediately. She had been on paid leave since Jan. 30, Superintendent Matthew Wendt said.

Gary Day, executive director of information systems, was to retire June 30, but the School Board approved Thursday a modified letter of retirement with an effective date of March 30. Day is on paid leave until his retirement date, Wendt said.

Wendt wouldn't comment further.

Hanlon declined to comment on her resignation Thursday night. Day couldn't be reached.

Hanlon joined the district in August 2014. Hanlon had a long tenure as the chief financial officer for Rogers School District before joining Fayetteville School District.

Day has worked for the School District since June 2015. He also worked for Rogers School District as a director of technology.

A proposal presented Thursday to revise the 2017-18 calendars for traditional schools and schools on a continuous learning calendar. The proposal will return to the School Board at the March 30 meeting.

"We do not need to cancel school in order to have teacher training," Wendt said. "I think it's huge that we start school on the same day."

The revision includes having all schools start Aug. 14.

Another major change is taking out most "broken" weeks of school, said Claire Garrett, chairwoman of the district's Personnel Policy Committee. She's a special services designee for four campuses.

The approved calendar for 2017-18 includes six weeks where students are scheduled to be out of school while teachers attend training, Garrett said. The staff proposes removing five of the broken weeks and to shift the days set aside for teacher training to the beginning of each semester.

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Another significant change is to remove the annual break in May so Asbell Elementary School, Happy Hollow Elementary School and Owl Creek School will begin summer break earlier, Garrett said.

Instead of having two designated days for conferences between parents and teachers each fall and spring, the proposed calendars give teachers and parents October and March to schedule conferences, said Catie Paul, the secretary of the committee who also is a French teacher at Ramay and Woodland junior high schools.

Principals and teachers at each campus have the option of scheduling two days for all parent-teacher conferences or spread the conferences out over the month, Paul said.

"The whole goal is to give autonomy back to teachers," Paul said.

The change also is intended to assist parents who have struggled to make it to parent-teacher conferences of children on multiple campuses, Paul said. Teachers also struggled to attend their children's parent-teacher conferences.

Teachers can consider scheduling conferences with parents in the mornings, afternoons or evenings and or over a video chat session, Paul said.

"We want to meet parents where they are," Paul said.

NW News on 02/24/2017

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