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Ask Elsie
EDITOR’S NOTE: Ask Elsie is an a column where Chief Financial Officer Elsie Schiro tackles employee queries or, in areas outside her purview, asks other District leaders to answer them.
Dear Elsie,
Elementary teachers have a lot of demands on our time, including after-school events, grading, and planning. Having a mandatory two-hour staff meeting every week is a hardship for us. Most of the time we feel that the meetings are filled with busyness just to fill the two hours, not actually helpful and worthwhile. We would like to see the meetings shortened or held less frequently.
Signed,
Exhausted and Overworked Elementary Teachers
Thank you for writing, Exhausted and Overworked Elementary Teachers.
I reached out to Karen Molinar, FWISD chief of Elementary Schools, and she had this to say on the matter: "Thank you for sharing your concern regarding two-hour faculty meetings. It is not a District expectation that a campus holds mandatory two-hour faculty meeting each week. The time is to be used for professional learning, mandated training for state testing, or planning for schoolwide initiatives. We have shared with principals that meetings should only be held when necessary or for the length to cover content. I am happy to review with principals the expectations of after-school requirements. I am also happy to work with individual campuses on this concern if a campus name is shared with me."
Thanks again for writing, and thank you to Ms. Molinar responding,
Elsie
Direct your questions to Inside@fwisd.org and put the words “Ask Elsie” I the subject line. Please close your letter with your preferred signature as you wish it to appear in the column. When there are multiple queries on the same subject, we will select the one that is most representative of the subject. We will try to answer as many questions as possible.