By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News

Pontiac District 429 Schools are now dismissing students 30 minutes early on Thursdays to give teachers professional development.

Superintendent Brian Dukes said District 90 has been doing this for a number of years, and thought this would give teachers some solid time for discussions on curriculum and instruction, and so far, it’s working out well.

“It sounds like a pretty small amount of time, but the amount of work we’ve gotten done these first couple of weeks has just been exciting and our staff has really been able to grow together. That’s just something we really work hard towards in collaborating together. Basically, that gives them an hour to an hour and a half every week to work together, either as a grade level or a department. We have special topics on certain Thursdays. Information we want to cover and sometimes we have people come in and work with our staff, depending on where they’re at with their curriculum and subject matter,” Dukes said.