After a successful pilot project in the Wagener and Ridge Spring/Monetta schools, the Aiken County School District will introduce an "early release" day once a month for staff development next year.

On one Wednesday a month, each school will dismiss students about two hours early, followed by an approximately four-hour session for faculty-member training and discussion.

"We have done the pilot for two years now, and other schools started talking about wanting to do early release, too," said Area 1 Assistant Superintendent Joy Shealy.

District administrators will begin planning on dates and on the parameters for the program, said Deputy Superintendent David Caver. He doesn't anticipate that the early release sessions would be held in August, nor in January after the holidays either.

"We think it will really help," he said, "with our High Schools That Work program, the middle school staff development we need and with the literacy model we're rolling out for all elementary schools. Our schools can benefit from an ongoing and concerted effort in staff development."

The three Wagener schools - Wagener-Salley High, A.L. Corbett Middle School and Busbee Elementary School - are completing their second year with the project. RS-M Elementary/Middle School and RS-M High joined the initiative during the current school year.

Parents have been cooperative, often using the early departure time to take their children to the doctor or just to spend additional time with them, said Shealy. Teachers like the program, she said, because it's a more concentrated effort and not coming at the end of a regular, long school day.

Corbett Principal Dr. Deborah Bass and Busbee Principal John Mills agreed that the sessions have been effective.

"There's plenty of opportunity to get more information to our teachers," Mills said. "They get an opportunity to collaborate and put their best practices together for their classrooms."

Corbett and the other schools have brought in outside speakers, said Bass, such as a State Department of Education staffer to discuss gender-based instruction and an S.C. ETV representative to describe educational resources to help engage student-learning. Faculty from the Ruth Patrick Science Education Center have also provided sessions on integrating reading and writing throughout the curriculum. USC Aiken professors such as Dr. Tim Litner and Dr. Lynn Rhodes have provided additional information to assist teachers on curriculum.

"We've also done our own research on how to understand review our own MAP (testing) data," Bass said. "We're looking at the needs unique to our school."

In addition, district administrators will explore staff development opportunities related to overall academic goals, Caver said.

Contact Rob Novit at rnovit@aikenstandard.com.