Early Release Wednesdays to Return to Manatee Schools on Monthly Basis

BRADENTON – The highly-controversial early-release Wednesdays will return to Manatee County Schools this fall, though on a monthly rather than weekly basis.

The school board voted 4-1 Monday night to re-institute the policy on a more limited basis in order to provide administrators more time to help teachers transition to federal "Common Core" standards.

The policy, which had first been implemented in 2007/08 in order to train teachers on the district's own newly-designed core curriculum, while increasing opportunities for paid professional development, was scrapped last school year when no such success had been attained after five years.

Many families with two working parents and single parents had complained that the policy was both costly and inconvenient, while many teachers said that the short day in the middle of the week created challenges in student retention. 

Board member Bob Gause was the only one to vote against the measure, which was a late addition to the agenda.