DANVERS — The schools' plan to send students home early 18 days next year is unusual but not unprecedented on the North Shore.

Of the three other large communities on the North Shore, Peabody has four early release days, Beverly has five and Salem has eight.

However, teachers in the Hamilton-Wenham Regional School District, which has approximately 2,200 students, have staff development days every Wednesday and kids go home early.

The new schedule in Danvers would give teachers more time outside the classroom for training, but it caught parents by surprise last week.

"The word was it is just terrible," said Jennifer Napolitano, a member of the Highlands School Parent Advisory Council, about the buzz at the school's moving-on ceremony on Friday.

Parents plan to turn out in force tomorrow night when the School Committee takes a final vote at Smith School on the schedule change, which the board passed unanimously last week. The committee's meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m.

The state does not determine the number of days districts must set aside for teacher training, said Jonathan Considine, a spokesman for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

However, "the state does require us to provide free professional development in order to allow teachers to recertify," said School Committee member Eric Crane.

The 18 proposed early release days are up from six this year, which was down from 10 the prior year.

School officials see the new schedule as a way to move the district of nearly 3,600 students beyond mediocrity.

The rationale is to:

r Improve MCAS scores.

r Meet accreditation requirements at the high school.

r Put all the elementary schools on the same curriculum.

r Introduce a reading and literacy program in the elementary schools.

"I see it as the piece that will move the district forward with more urgency," Superintendent Lisa Dana said.

Fifty-one percent of 10th-graders scored in the "proficient" category on the spring 2007 MCAS in English, while the state average was 49 percent. Thirty-three percent of Danvers sophomores were proficient in math, while 27 percent were proficient statewide.

The goal is to boost the district into the top third on state MCAS tests.

"If you are chugging along the 50 percent mark," Crane said, "getting into the top one third is a big goal."

Schools have been working individually on the curriculum, but more professional development days will allow teachers throughout the district to work together, Dana said.

Crane said it is important to get teachers on the same page, "so you can make sure the third-graders at the Smith School are getting the same quality and curriculum as at the Thorpe School."

A warning about the accreditation at Danvers High from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges is also driving the need for more professional development.

"Basically what they were saying was our teachers needed more time together," said School Committee member Connie Pawlak, a former middle school principal in Concord, where most Tuesdays are early release days. "They need to be provided with the latest information in content areas."

Caught off guard

To allay parents' child-care concerns, all elementary schools plan to offer after-school programs for that hour and a half, similar to a fun club piloted this spring during two early release days.

The cost per session has yet to be finalized, but the pilot programs cost $15 per child per session, Dana said.

Catherine Wolniewicz has three children in the elementary schools, and this will mean she will have to shell out an extra $90 a month to ensure coverage.

A former middle school teacher in Salem, Wolniewicz has been e-mailing other Danvers parents.

"They are in outrage," she said.

Part of the problem is that they got little advance notice about such a major change in the school year, she said.

The plan, which involved negotiations on the new Danvers teachers contract, was first announced at last Monday's school board meeting, and letters went home in students' backpacks last week.

Wolniewicz said the school board presented the plan as if it had already passed, but a final vote is required tomorrow.

Pawlak, who was not on the contract negotiating subcommittee, said the idea had not been floated earlier because it was part of contract negotiations, which are held in secret.

Crane and Dana said it was the administration that pushed for more professional development.

How did the teachers feel about the early release plan?

"This is not something the teachers were against," Crane said. "I think the teachers were concerned this didn't result in wholesale changes in work time."

The president of the Danvers Teachers Association, Barbara Arena, said yesterday she could not comment because the contract had yet to be ratified. Teachers plan to vote on the contract today, she said.

Napolitano and Wolniewicz said they support the goal of improving the schools, but wish they had more say.

"I do know teachers need this time. I just wish they would consider families," Napolitano said.

Parents also have concerns that reach beyond child care.

"I also worry about the reduction in the amount of days the kids are actually in school," Napolitano said.

On days when children are not released early, they will be in class an extra five minutes, school officials said.

"When the teachers are skilled, and they have the very best teaching practices, the students learn," Pawlak said. "That is what it is all about."

What the state requires

For staff

r Teachers must complete 150 hours of professional development every five years to keep their certification.

r Districts must have a budget for professional development.

r They are not required to provide early-release days for training.

For students

r Each elementary school student must spend 900 hours in class per school year.

r Each high school student must spend 990 hours in class.

Source: State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Early release elsewhere

Peabody

Peabody has four professional development early release days in its upcoming school year, said Assistant Superintendent Joseph Mastrocola: one in September, one in December, one in February and one in April.

Mastrocola gives Danvers Superintendent Lisa Dana credit for "stepping up to the plate" in providing more days in her district.

"She's pretty cutting-edge," Mastrocola said. "She does some bright things over there."

Beverly

Beverly elementary schools have five early release days, Superintendent James Hayes said.

Three of the days are needed to help teachers fill out a narrative-based report card.

"It's not simply A's, B's and C's," Hayes said.

The other two days are compensation for not getting a preparation period every day, Hayes said. Early release in the upper grades is used when an issue arises, such as accreditation.

Hayes said news of the Danvers early release plan caught his eye.

"That is something I have proposed in the past to our School Committee," Hayes said, "and they have not chosen to approve it. But I certainly understand the need for additional time to do more professional development."

Salem

Salem has eight early release days for professional development, roughly one Wednesday a month, except in November and April, said Alyce Davis, Salem's assistant superintendent. Teachers get about 21/2 to three hours of planning time on those days, depending on the school.

If you go

What: Special meeting of the Danvers School Committee

When: Tomorrow, 5:30 p.m.

Where: Smith School media center, 15 Lobao Drive

On the agenda: Adoption of 18 early release days for the 2008-2009 school year and a vote on the Danvers teachers' contract.

The plan

On early release days every other Tuesday, the elementary schools will be dismissed at 12:55 p.m. instead of 2:35 p.m., and Holten Richmond Middle School and the high school will be dismissed at 12:30 p.m. instead of 2 p.m. Five minutes will be added to the school day to make up for the lost time. The first early release day in the calendar is Sept. 16.

What's needed: A second vote on the new schedule.