Joann Walters Elementary School Principal announces schedule change

Thursday afternoon, JoAnn Walters Elementary School principal Craig Dodson announced, students in the 4^th, 5^th and 6^th grades will be greeted with a scheduling change for the second semester of the 2023-2024 school year.

Dodson said the district had created a schedule before he arrived in July that had students in the 4^th, 5^th and 6^th grades changing classes. The schedule was suppose to help students transition to the high school schedule in 7^th grade. Dodson said the new schedule did not work as effectively as they had hoped and therefore he was changing the student schedules for the spring semester. Dodson said starting in January 4^th, 5^th and 6^th grade students will no longer be changing classes the way they did during the fall semester.

Dodson said the 4^th, 5^th and 6^th grade students were losing over an hour of instruction a day by changing classes.

Dodson said the district has made the decision to go back to 2-man teams for each grade. He said when students go back to class in January, each grade will have two teachers. Dodson said students will start in their homeroom and change classes once or twice a day. He also named the 4^th, 5^th and 6^th grade teachers.

Dodson said this change will allow teachers to have more hands-on instruction time and benefit the students.