The Knoxville School Board approved a one-year pilot program that will change the way contractual work time will be based. Knoxville School District Superintendent Cassi Pearson tells KNIA/KRLS News about the program

“A few years ago the state went to a minimum number of hours for students instead of the old fashion days in a calendar and it has worked really well so we decided to pilot a similar system for our staff. Our current master contract has the traditional 190 days with seven hours and forty-five-minute contract days. So we took those pieces and created our formula for our hour’s system. With the lump sum of the hours we feel it will give us more flexibility on how we carve out that time to make it a more meaningful time for the students. We think adding the staff to the same system will give us that flexibility so we decided to try it for a year.”

The program is for the 2022-23 school year and will end on June 30, 2023, unless both sides agree to extend the program through the collective bargaining process.