SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany -- Leaders from the 52nd Fighter Wing and representatives from the Department of Defense Education Activity-Europe held a town hall May 20 at the base theater to update community members about the ongoing plan to transfer students to Spangdahlem Air Base from the Bitburg Annex.
The current plan is to have all pre-kindergarten through 8th-grade students return to Spangdahlem for the 2016-2017 school year. During this time, the Spangdahlem Elementary School will reopen and be augmented by temporary, modular facilities in December.
For the fall semester, it is planned for students in 5th grade to begin their day at Spangdahlem elementary school, before transitioning to the middle school for the rest of their classes.
Additionally, a new teaching initiative, which allows the Spangdahlem schools to have a late start once a week, will be implemented this upcoming year.
On Wednesdays, students will arrive 30 minutes later than the established start time. The end of the school day time will remain the same.
The Wednesday schedule for each school will be: 8:35 a.m. - 2:20 p.m. for Spangdahlem Elementary School, 8:30 a.m. – 2:35 p.m. for Spangdahlem Middle School and 8:40 a.m. – and 3 p.m. for Bitburg High School.
The extra time will be used for teachers to work together to analyze data, work on new standards and lesson plans, create collaborative assessments, or plan other strategies to differentiate instruction.
Teachers will still have planning days throughout the year. However, the new initiative will eliminate the need for the current early-release days during the school year.
The goal of the initiative is to help improve student achievement through teacher collaboration.
“As we look at research and what’s good for kids and teachers, we find it’s important for teachers to meet together to look at student data and to put strategies in place so that every single one of our students is making the most progress possible,” said Jennifer Remoy, Bitburg Middle High School principal.
For more information, contact Christine D’Amico, the Spangdahlem school liaison officer, at DSN: 452-6942 or Comm: 0656561-6942.