Wake County schools leaders are contemplating how to find time for 160 hours of training on reading instruction required by a new state law.

Wake County Public School System officials have proposed carving two hours out of six days of school during next year’s calendar, while making up for the time by adding five minutes onto each school day. The early releases would give teachers two or more hours each time to do their training.

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School board members were skeptical of the proposal during a work session Tuesday afternoon.

Board Member Karen Carter said the change could cause more disruption than it sounds, even just the extra five minutes.

“If you’re an employee who has another job, it’s a big deal,” Carter said. “If you’re a student who has a job, it’s a big deal.”

Board Member Jim Martin argued taking time away from some days and adding it to others was not really saving time. He questioned whether five more minutes in a day could provide comparable academic benefit to two hours in a single school day.

“If you’re adding five minutes to the school day you’re not affecting learning one iota,” Martin said.

The five minutes everyday are to make up for the 12 hours lost to six early release days and continue to provide the required number of hours of instruction.

“It is merely compliance,” Martin said.

The reading training, which is only for pre-kindergarten through fifth grade teachers and some administrators, is required as a part of the latest iteration of the Read to Achieve program designed by the General Assembly. It overhauls reading instruction to emphasize more phonics-based approaches and includes exploration of language development in children. Experts think a more phonics-based approach, along with reduced or eliminated use of using visual cues to learn new words, can help more students learn to read more easily.

Lawmakers required the state to contract with Voyager Sopris Learning to conduct Literacy Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS), which the state Department of Public Instruction did last year for about $49.7 million.

State leaders point to Mississippi’s adoption of LETRS for some students, which coincided with higher proficiency rates in reading as most other state’s saw stagnated or declining reading proficiency. At the same time, Mississippi continues to rank just below the national average in the percentage of fourth graders reading proficiently, about 32%.

The Wake County Public School System will begin LETRS training in August and end it in spring 2024.

The training is composed of 56 sessions, estimated to take an hour to nearly three hours each, according to documents from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. In total, general K-5 teachers can expect to spend 137.5 hours to 168 hours on the training, or 17 to 21 eight-hour workdays. Early childhood teachers can expect to spend 32 hours to 37.5 hours on the training, or four to five eight-hour workdays.

The state recommends districts have teachers complete two units each semester over two years. That’s 12 to 14 sessions totaling about 40 hours of estimated work.

The 12 hours the Wake County Public School System’s proposed calendar change would provide toward training is only a small fraction of what teachers would need to complete the training, Assistant Superintendent for Academic Affairs Drew Cook told the school board Tuesday.

Cook also acknowledged the “perfect storm” of staffing shortages and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic already burning teachers out and placing more responsibilities on their shoulders.

Wake leaders are also mulling using federal COVID-19 stimulus funds to provide $2,000 bonuses to K-5 teachers completing the training and $1,000 bonuses for pre-kindergarten teachers completing the training.

Board Member Christine Kushner questioned using federal funds toward state requirements.

“I really wish the state would fund their mandates,” Kushner said.

Board Member Chris Heagarty said he had many more questions and hoped the district would bring more information to the board and other ideas of how to solve the problem.

Cook said the district could consider using two days for training and reduce the number of “banked” days for inclement weather from three to one.

“We’re looking at every potential scenario and not just what we’ve shared on the screen,” Cook said.

The district will return to the board no later than the May 3 with a final proposal.

WFAE reported in December that Charlotte-Mecklenberg Schools and Cabarrus County were offering teachers bonuses as they completed their training.

Districts in and around Charlotte have done training in place of planning periods or other professional development, WFAE reported. Another was hiring substitute teachers while teachers did the training.

Earlier this year, State Board of Education members told DPI officials some teachers were working on weekends to do the training, without compensation. They asked for DPI to help schools find ways to ease the burden of the training on teachers already feeling burned out from more responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Superintendent Catherine Truitt said she did not know teachers were training on the weekend but emphasized the necessity of doing the training.