Lyle School District has been approved by the State Board of Education to pilot a flexible school calendar. The Flex Schedule will begin at the start of spring semester, Friday January 22nd.  A link to the calendar may be found at http://www.lyleschools.org/.

The new Flex-Schedule school week will consist of two to five day weeks, dependant upon holidays, school activities and scheduled breaks.  The flexible calendar will allow snow days to be made up on Fridays.  The hours of the student's school day will remain the same for the remainder of the 2990-2010 school year.

This waiver has been granted for the remainder of this school year and the following two school years.  Lyle School District will evaluate the new pilot program frequently over the next two months to determine the success of this new progressive schedule for students and the district.  The district hopes to achieve significant economic efficiencies with this change, as well as provide Lyle students with an excellent education.  Student contact time with teachers will not be affected by this calendar change.

The district has the option to revert back to the traditional calendar if it is deemed necessary.  Program evaluations will be conducted by reviews of test scores, staff input and surveys from both the district and Washington State.  Parents and students will have ample opportunity for comments.

The new Flex-Schedule school week will consist of regular student days, LID days (staff learning in district) and "Lab" days.

Lab days (short for laboratory) will be on Fridays at Lyle Secondary school campus, from 8 a.m. until noon and at Dallesport Elementary campus from 8:30 until 11:30.  These will be non-transportation days, and buses will not run.  There will be certified and classified staff at both campuses to work with students on Lab days.  Elementary, middle and high school students may attend a Lab day at the closest school to their home.  For example, a high school student living in Dallesport may go to Dallesport Elementary to work on homework or projects instead of going to the Lyle campus.  Lunch will be served mid-morning to those students attending a Lab day.

Students can attend a Lab day to participate in scheduled activites, do homework, help tutor, participate in arranged practices for band, sports and drama; and also take classes that will be offered by a variety of staff which may include welding, wiring, sign language, video production, knitting, yoga and archery.

LID days will also be scheduled on Fridays.  These teacher-in-service and workshop days will focus on school improvement projects in math, community communications, curriculum needs and teaching methods.

The ultimate goal of this progressive change to our school calendar is to realize a significant savings in fuel, substitute staff, some utilities, reduced transportation maintenance and operations cost.  The efficiency of the flexible schedule, as reported by other districts currently using it, are increased attendance by both staff and students, and increase or no reduction in academic achievement, higher involvement from the students and patrons in some activities and quality prep time for staff.

Martin Huffman, district superintendent since 1994, feels that "the Flex-Schedule is a great opportunity for our school district to meet our student's needs and provide a high quality education.  This forward-looking move on the part of the Lyle Communities is to be commended.  Any kind of change is hard, but the entire staff and many community members are committed to this pilot program.  I really am excited to see what our school can do with this change."

The Flex-Schedule is intended to improve our school district.  The district has been working on this for four years, and has had six public meetings to discuss this with interested parties.  As the Flex-Schedulel is implemented, comments and questions can be directed to Martin Huffman at 509-365-2191 or dallesport@hotmail.com.

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