AUBURN — The Auburn School Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether Auburn Middle School and Edward Little High School students should be released two hours early one Wednesday a month.

The early release is the recommendation of a study group that examined how to balance parent protests of less student class time with the need for teachers’ professional development.

As recommended, the early-release Wednesdays would start in 2018-19.

“It’s a positive step forward,” Superintendent Katy Grondin said Monday. “They looked at concerns raised by parents, (at) teachers’ need for professional development time, and looked at what’s a fair recommendation.”

Teachers need time to do extended work around implementing the new teacher evaluation system, the state-mandated Proficiency-Based Diploma, and to have conversations about how to help students, Grondin said.

The recommendation for 10 early-release days is similar to Lewiston, which has eight early-release dates for students.

Last spring, the Auburn School Department proposed a new school calendar with weekly half-day Wednesdays for grades 7-12. Auburn grades K-6 students have had half-day Wednesdays for years, an unpopular trend with parents.

Parents showed up at School Committee meetings protesting extending half-day Wednesdays to the upper grades, saying they didn’t want their students missing class time, because it would be a hardship to families with teens being unsupervised or parents missing work.

The School Committee shelved the issue and assigned a task force to come up with recommendations.

That group was composed of School Committee members, principals, teachers and parents. It met five times during the fall. Assistant Superintendent Michelle McClellan, who facilitated the group, said parents were surveyed to give the committee some guidance.

“Parents were asked for input on two issues: ‘Would it be better to have a late start or early release?’” McClellan said. Most parents said early release, she said.

Parents were also asked if they favored more frequent but later early releases – for instance, 27 one-hour early releases, or less frequent but earlier releases of two hours 10 times a year.

The majority indicated two hours 10 times a year, McClellan said.

Auburn parent Claire Nacinovich said she’s unhappy about how the survey was conducted and what it didn’t ask.

Many parents were upset that no reduction in class time was not an option, she said, adding all options should be on the table.

Also professional development for teachers is being framed as an effort to comply with state law, when there’s quite a bit of local control on how laws are implemented, she said.

“We are choosing as a district to make drastic changes, which is necessitating a reduction in student instruction time,” Nacinovich said.

If the study group’s recommendation is accepted by the School Committee, the study group is offering a few more recommendations, including that officials review the impact on student achievement and attendance every year or two, the need for supervision in the community and if the monthly early release is meeting the need for teacher professional development.

The School Committee meets at 7 p.m. in the City Council Chamber of Auburn Hall.

The Auburn School Committee will consider a recommendation Wednesday to have early release for grades 7-12 students one Wednesday a month. In this photo from May, parents and educators speak to the School Committee about weekly half-day Wednesdays for grades 7-12, a proposal that was shelved after parents protested. (Daryn Slover/Sun Journal file photo)